'Hundreds' of jobs to be cut at Jaguar Land Rover's Halewood plant on Merseyside

Car giant Jaguar Land Rover is cutting jobs at one of its UK plants in a fresh blow to the car industry, according to Unite.

The union said it understands the redundancies at Halewood, Merseyside, are a result of ongoing economic uncertainty, with slower than forecast rate of growth for the Range Rover Evoque and Land Rover Discovery Sport models produced at the factory.

It is understood that hundreds of jobs are set to be cut.

Workers were told on Wednesday (January 22) that job losses are a result of changing the shift system to deliver flexibility efficiencies that longer term should benefit employees and the company, which is set to come into effect from April. JLR says employees have been kept informed of the need for change as part of long-term planning.

The job losses comprise a mixture of permanent employees and agency staff, said Unite.

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National officer Des Quinn said: "This is a further blow to the UK car industry in general and to our members at Halewood in particular.

"Unite will be ensuring that the commitment to limit job losses to voluntary redundancies is fully honoured.

The Halewood plant builds the Range Rover Evoque and Land Rover Discover Sport.