Britain's biggest carmaker Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is all set to halt production at its UK plants in April due to potential disruption caused by Brexit. The firm, which has previously warned about the impact of Britain's withdrawal from the European Union, will pause work at three of its UK plants. JLR employs just under 39,000 workers at sites including Castle Bromwich, Solihull, and Wolverhampton in the West Midlands and Halewood on Merseyside.
A JLR spokeswoman said the extra week of stand-down would also affect its engine plant. The company said in a statement, “There will be an additional week of production stand-down (from the) 8-12 April due to potential Brexit disruption.” Earlier this month, JLR announced it would cut 4,500 jobs to make £2.5bn of cost savings. The majority of those cuts are expected to be in the UK and a voluntary reduction programme has been launched.
New job losses came in addition to the 1,500 workers who left the company last year. Jaguar is not the only car manufacturer who has considered halting production. Car giant Toyota previously warned a no-deal Brexit would lead to a temporary stoppage in UK production and would impact investment in Britain. BMW, who have a plant in Oxford, has made the decision to bring a planned maintenance stoppage forward to coincide with the start of Brexit.
