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| Version 0 | Version 1 |
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| Brown tour: View from the regions | Brown tour: View from the regions |
| (about 17 hours later) | |
| Gordon Brown is on a three-day tour of England and Wales to explain what the government is doing to help people and businesses through the economic downturn. BBC reporters give the lowdown on the state of industry in the areas he is visiting. | Gordon Brown is on a three-day tour of England and Wales to explain what the government is doing to help people and businesses through the economic downturn. BBC reporters give the lowdown on the state of industry in the areas he is visiting. |
| NORTH WEST | |
| With Jaguar Land Rover, Vauxhall, Leyland and Bentley 23,000 are directly employed in the North West's automotive sector. That figure rises to 50,000 if you count indirect supply chain jobs. As car sales slump, concerns mount.There is a growing campaign to encourage the Government to offer financial support to Jaguar Land Rover. Not a bail out say supporters, but a £1bn pound loan to help the company out, in what the company's chief executive describes as a ''once in a century crisis.''''Clearly there will be job losses,'' added David Smith, just how many depends on the political pressure they can apply. | |
| Another significant sector for the North West - finance. The source of the current crisis. MBNA is the biggest employer in Chester. Any day now its 4,000 staff will hear if and how the company's plans to shed 35,000 jobs worldwide will hit them. | |
| And for every corporate institution that is feeling the bite, there are countless small businesses. Not 200 yards from where the Cabinet is meeting stands the Porter Brothers building.They have made flags for 100 years including the flag carried by Scott of the Antarctic to the South Pole, and those draped over the coffins of Winston Churchill and Princess Diana. on Wednesday it became the latest victim of the credit crunch. | |
| As for the city? It's riding on the crest of a wave that was its hugely successful year as European Capital of Culture. As investment dries up elsewhere, it has seen £1bn pounds of private money pumped into the Liverpool One shopping centre. Liverpool may be in a better position than most to face the crisis head on. | |
| By Jayne Barrett, Economics correspondent, BBC North West Tonight WEST MIDLANDS | |
| "If you think things look bad now, you just wait until the end of March." | "If you think things look bad now, you just wait until the end of March." |
| A senior backbench MP's gloomy assessment of the West Midlands' economic outlook comes with the debate still spectacularly unresolved over whether or not Jaguar Land Rover should get a government "bail out". | A senior backbench MP's gloomy assessment of the West Midlands' economic outlook comes with the debate still spectacularly unresolved over whether or not Jaguar Land Rover should get a government "bail out". |
| Jaguar Land Rover currently employ 15,000 workers, but with Land Rover sales down 60% against last year, the chief executive is warning the 600 redundancies recently announced will not be the last. | Jaguar Land Rover currently employ 15,000 workers, but with Land Rover sales down 60% against last year, the chief executive is warning the 600 redundancies recently announced will not be the last. |
| And in North Staffordshire's Potteries 1,100 workers at Waterford Wedgewood fear they too could soon be added to the grim toll of redundancies now that the company has gone into administration. | And in North Staffordshire's Potteries 1,100 workers at Waterford Wedgewood fear they too could soon be added to the grim toll of redundancies now that the company has gone into administration. |
| Local MPs are calling for the government to set up a Task Force like the one established after MG Rover collapsed four years ago, to help redundant workers retrain. | Local MPs are calling for the government to set up a Task Force like the one established after MG Rover collapsed four years ago, to help redundant workers retrain. |
| By Patrick Burns, Political Editor, BBC Midlands | By Patrick Burns, Political Editor, BBC Midlands |
| EAST MIDLANDS | EAST MIDLANDS |
| It is no surprise that Gordon Brown should first chose to visit Rolls Royce. | It is no surprise that Gordon Brown should first chose to visit Rolls Royce. |
| The Derby-based aero engine manufacturer is one of the success stories of the East Midlands and the UK. | The Derby-based aero engine manufacturer is one of the success stories of the East Midlands and the UK. |
| Rolls Royce employs 20,000 people in the region, but thousands of more jobs in locally-based component firms depend on it. | Rolls Royce employs 20,000 people in the region, but thousands of more jobs in locally-based component firms depend on it. |
| The company recently announced a flurry of new orders of its Trent aero engines for a Middle East airline. | The company recently announced a flurry of new orders of its Trent aero engines for a Middle East airline. |
| But even this blue-chip global brand has made redundancies. Some 140 jobs are to go at its Derby-based testing facility. | But even this blue-chip global brand has made redundancies. Some 140 jobs are to go at its Derby-based testing facility. |
| Car giant Toyota, which employs more than 4,000 people at its UK car plant near Derby, has come up with a novel approach to the downturn. | Car giant Toyota, which employs more than 4,000 people at its UK car plant near Derby, has come up with a novel approach to the downturn. |
| It has halted some weekend shifts. But rather than laying off hundreds of workers, it is retraining them so the car maker can take full advantage of the eventual upturn. | It has halted some weekend shifts. But rather than laying off hundreds of workers, it is retraining them so the car maker can take full advantage of the eventual upturn. |
| The East Midlands is now more reliant on manufacturing than any other English region. | The East Midlands is now more reliant on manufacturing than any other English region. |
| Last year, a succession of job losses in a range of businesses - from Capital Bank in Nottingham to Fenland Foods, the Grantham-based ready meal producers - caused alarm. | Last year, a succession of job losses in a range of businesses - from Capital Bank in Nottingham to Fenland Foods, the Grantham-based ready meal producers - caused alarm. |
| Gordon Brown visited the East Midlands then, to talk up how the region's growing bio-science and technology sector would provide jobs and prosperity for the future. | Gordon Brown visited the East Midlands then, to talk up how the region's growing bio-science and technology sector would provide jobs and prosperity for the future. |
| By John Hess, Political Editor, BBC East Midlands | By John Hess, Political Editor, BBC East Midlands |