Trade and Industry Secretary Stephen Byers today said it was not too late to
find an alternative purchaser for Rover Cars, saying he could not be
confident of the operation's long-term future under Alchemy Partners.
He suggested that the venture capital group's plan, announced yesterday, to
halve production at the Longbridge plant in Birmingham to 100,000 cars a year
might not be acceptable to the Government, which he said wanted to see Rover
remain a high-volume manufacturer.
Alchemy, which agreed earlier this week to buy Rover, MG and Longbridge from
German owners BMW, has no experience of car manufacturing and was immediately
branded an "asset-stripper" by unions, who fear thousands of redundancies.
Today, Mr Byers attended the first meeting of a Government-backed taskforce
set up to deal with the impact of the surprise sale, officially announced on
Thursday just weeks after BMW insisted Rover was part of its long-term plans.
BMW chairman Prof Joachim Milberg said yesterday that he wanted the Rover
sell-off - and the sale of Land Rover to Ford - to be completed within two or
three months, which Mr Byers said offered a window of opportunity to find a
different buyer.
Arriving at the taskforce meeting in Birmingham, he said: "It is difficult to
say what Alchemy are intending to do with Longbridge.
"If they are prepared to commit themselves to a high-volume factory for car
production then we would welcome that, but they have left so many questions
unanswered that we can't say today with any confidence that they offer a
long-term future for Longbridge.
"Alchemy Partners have six weeks to finalise their deal. In the interim,
there is nothing to stop someone coming along and putting in a new offer with
BMW.
"BMW have told me they would not reject alternative bids coming from other
car manufacturers."
The taskforce, led by the West Midlands regional development agency, is due
to report to Mr Byers within six weeks.
A Rapid Response Unit will be set up at Longbridge to help workers find other
jobs and give them early access to training schemes.
Production plans announced yesterday by Alchemy - which has existed for only
three years and has previously been involved in high street DIY and jewellery
chains - confirmed fears of substantial job losses in the West Midlands.
Production will be virtually halved to about 100,000 cars a year, with
engines and other components bought in from outside firms, said the
London-based group, which wants to rename Rover as MG Car Group.
Shifts at Longbridge are to be scaled down from Monday, costing workers about
£80 a month.
The Government has pledged £129m to the West Midlands to help regenerate the
area and cushion the blow of any job losses.
The cash is the central government portion of a £152m grant offered to BMW to
help it develop a new mid-range car at Longbridge, which was delayed by a
European Commission investigation into alleged breaches of competition rules.
Mr Byers told the taskforce meeting he was confident that it could offer
"real hope" both to Rover workers and the wider community. He said he wanted
to see a wide range of job creation schemes.
He promised: "We are not going to walk away from the problems created by
BMW's decisions.
"I want the taskforce to identify programmes and policies that will lead to
economic regeneration and job creation. That is what the people of Longbridge
want and what the people of the West Midlands want.
"We have to move quickly. I don't want to see a vacuum being created and
greater uncertainty being felt by the workers and the wider community."
Yesterday, Downing Street made it clear that the Prime Minister was furious
that Britain had been kept in the dark about BMW's sell-off plans.
Ministers are angry that German officials were discussing the sell-off of
Rover while they were negotiating with the European Commission in Brussels
over the aid package.
"That is not the way the Prime Minister believes people should do business,"
a Downing Street spokesman said.
There was also anger after BMW blamed the decision to sell Rover partly on
the strong pound and the Government's position on the single currency.
Mr Byers said today he would be seeking compensation from BMW.
Speaking after the first meeting of a special task force which has been set
up to deal with the job losses which are expected to follow the sale, he said
he would raise the matter in a meeting with BMW chairman Professor Joachim
Milberg which is scheduled to take place next Thursday.
Mr Byers said: "I will be challenging BMW to recognise that they have a
responsibility to the community in Longbridge and in the West Midlands and
that they should demonstrate that in a tangible way, either financially or
perhaps by some payment in kind.
"If that is appropriate, then I think that is something I will be raising
with them."
But when asked how much money he would be demanding from BMW, Mr Byers
replied: "I think we are looking for an appropriate demonstration of their
responsibility in this matter."
He added that next week's meeting with BMW would be "a full and frank
exchange of views".
Mr Byers spent three hours locked in talks with the 13-strong task force,
which is expected to swell to around 20 members once further invitations have
been sent out.
Chairman Alex Stephenson said the task force had agreed at its first meeting
to meet every Saturday morning during the six weeks before it is due to
report back to Mr Byers.
Mr Stephenson said the group's first tasks will be to identify which jobs are
likely to be lost, to set up a community action plan for the region, and to
draw up strategic plans for those parts of Longbridge which will not be used
for making cars.
The task force will also brief Mr Byers for his forthcoming meetings with
Ford, BMW and Rover's new owners Alchemy Partners.
The group which met today included representatives from local councils, trade
unions, local businesses, the CBI and the Employment Service.
Mr Stephenson, a 53-year-old former managing director of Rover Group Power
Train, one of the Rover Group's companies, said: "It is clear there is a lot
to do, but we still have a very large automotive sector in this region.
"My job as chairman has been made much easier by the support we are getting
from central government and the absolute commitment from a lot of very
capable people in this region. I think a new future will come eventually from
the meeting we are having today.
"One of the strategic objectives we set ourselves is to retain the
highly-skilled and engineering jobs in the region, because it is those that
create a lot of the wealth."
Mr Byers added that he wanted to see as many Longbridge workers as possible
find jobs in the engineering sector.
He said: "These are people who have been dedicated to Longbridge for many
years and who, in the process, have updated their skills. They are engineers
and skilled workers of the first order and our responsibility is to make sure
they can use those skills in engineering, because that is what they are good
at."
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Today I was at the London Classic Car Show at Alexander Palace, (North
London) where my Vitesse is on display with an early Herald Coupe, a Spitfire
Mk.3 and a
GT6-3.
The TR Register have their own display, as do the Stag Club with the first
production Stag as well as the very last one, on loan from the BMIHT museum
at Gaydon.
My very favorite car at the show, (other than mine) is a perfectly mint,
green Rover P4 Saloon. Surely one of the very finest restorations that I have
ever seen, and I have seen quite a few...
The prototype Rover P6 (2000) Saloon is also present. Marvellous cars all.
Today, the poor Reliant Owners Club stand, beside ours was empty all day long,
a real pity as they went to a lot of trouble preparing it...I think however,
that 'themed stands' are past their sell-by date...so very 'last
century'...perhaps people come to car shows to look at cars, and not
farmyards, or recreations of the adams family 'living' (sic) room...I did go
and speak to them, because I felt sorry for them, and because I got
physically pushed off the Triumph stand by all the visitors at the height of
the day!
Funny old world!
Tomorrow, I have to go back and do it all again, before taking my Vitesse
home.
Léon F Guyot
Triumph Sports Six Club
International Liaison Secretary
1963 Triumph Vitesse 2-Litre Convertible
Wimbledon, London, England.
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