Report into flagging UK auto industry ordered

Posted Mon Apr 7 2008 11:16 AM by Viknesh Vijayenthiran

It’s no big secret the British auto industry has been floundering. Most of the country’s premier labels are now owned by foreign companies, and with Asia’s car industry continuing to surge last month’s sale of Jaguar and Land Rover to India’s Tata is unlikely to be the last we’ll see of foreign takeovers in the UK.

To put a stop to the worsening trend, the country’s minister for business and enterprise affairs, Shriti Vadera, has ordered an investigation of the local auto industry. Officials plan to look at two main areas of vulnerability: foreign competition that can effectively price the UK out of the market and the development of new technologies to combat emissions.

The investigation will be conducted by a team of around 10 personnel and will be headed by former Ford exec Richard Parry-Jones. The review comes at a time when the UK motor industry is experiencing a slump, having reduced in size by around 100,000 units in the last couple of years alone. This number is expected to worsen if new cars do not meet tough new emissions standards being imposed around the world and tackle issues of cost-reduction and technology improvement.

The report is expected to be completed around 2009 and will report on strategies to improve production using "all levers of government, both regulatory and fiscal".

Pictured above is the production line for the TF roadster in Longbridge, which is now run by MG’s new owners Shanghai Automotive (SAIC). It is just one of many UK production sites owned and run by foreign parties.

Reader Comments

Mon Apr 7 2008 6:33 PM
HECTOR says

It's very clear to anyone that keeps up with industry news that the British sees cars and motorists as cash cows at best and as evil things that need to be taxed and regulated into oblivion at worst.

And now they're wondering why their auto industry isn't doing so well?! Gee! Let me think...
Mon Apr 7 2008 7:02 PM
RB says

I cannot see what the problem is here - As far as I know there are no British owned volume makers anymore so therefore the cash for developing more efficient vehicles etc is coming from abroad?

As for legislation governing the technology side of things (as apposed to tax- which is high!) this is mostly European wide anyway.

I had also believed that manufacturing was on the up? With the likes of Honda, Toyota and Nissan going well - although Peugeot have recently closed the doors (which could be the reason for the dip in the last couple of years).- then we still have Ford, Vauxhall, Jaguar and Landrover. Sounds quite healthy in the short term, and by spreading it around, it avoids keeping all your eggs in one basket!

I expect labour costs/exchange rates will eventually price manufacturing away from the UK - but this is already happening in the rest of Europe!

Again as far as I know the UK engineering/development side of things is still very successful - after all most F1 teams are based in the UK (although you could argue that not a lot of F1 technology filters to mainstream!)

Lastly I am not aware (I many be wrong) of the Longbridge line producing anything recently!

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