Ford announces UK job cuts

Ford has announced that it will cut 1,300 jobs in the UK over the next two years.

The job losses are part of a wider European restructure that will see the car maker reduce its workforce by 3,800.

Most of the job cuts in the UK are expected to be at Ford’s research site at Dunton in Essex, with production sites at Halewood, Dagenham and Daventry not affected.

Ford has said the job losses are a result of difficult operating conditions in Europe as well as its switch to electric vehicles.

Jim Holder, editorial director, What Car?, said: “Ford’s announcement underlines once again the scale of the one-in-a-century transformation that the automotive industry is undergoing, and the depths of change it is having to embrace to maintain profitability while investing the hundreds of billions required to make the electric transition.

“The UK had been at the heart of Ford’s automotive empire for decades, but its position has been eroded by a succession of job cuts and plant closures. If the government is serious about preserving roles in this sector it needs a strategy that puts the industry on the front foot to take advantage of the green revolution. Today, we lag behind our European neighbours and risk being overwhelmed by the investment going into the sector in the USA and China.”