Toyota latest to cut hours as aid summit meets

Mar 12 2009 by Iain Laing, The Journal

CAR group Toyota announced cuts in production and pay at its two UK factories yesterday just minutes before the Government held a summit to discuss the crisis in the industry.

The year-long cuts, the latest in a series of measures by the Japanese company to cope with a slump in sales, will start next month at its sites in Burnaston, near Derby, and Deeside in North Wales.

The grim news was given as car company officials, bankers and union leaders were arriving at the London headquarters of the Business Department to discuss a £2.3bn assistance programme for the industry, announced by Business Secretary Lord Mandelson last January.

Business Minister Ian Pearson said after the meeting: “The Automotive Assistance Programme is now open for business. The Government has put the scheme in place and has now clearly set out the criteria against which applications will be judged. Now it’s up to companies to come forward with their bids.”

Erik Eberhardson, leading a management buyout of LDV vans in Birmingham, which has not produced any vehicles since before Christmas, said the Government seemed to be backing the “tortoises, not hares” of new green technology.

“We fully support their objectives, but surely it makes sense to support companies like LDV that are already ahead of the game. We don’t want a bail-out, rather targeted support for a company that has already invested heavily in electric vehicles and has products trialling with some of Britain’s biggest companies right now. What sense is there in letting the existing world-leading low carbon potential in Birmingham be lost?”