MPs warn “cash flow situation is becoming serious”
16:46, 17 Sep 2025Updated 16:47, 17 Sep 2025
The Jaguar Land Rover site at Halewood(Image: LIVERPOOL ECHO)
There are fears that hundreds of thousands of jobs – including many in Merseyside – will soon cease to exist as the crisis at Jaguar Land Rover continues. The car manufacturing giant was hit by a major cyber attack at the start of this month, with production shut down across all its sites since then.
JLR, which has a major plant in Merseyside, told its staff this week that they will be away from work until at least next Wednesday, but there are growing fears that the problems could persist for a prolonged period.
The company, which is owned by India’s Tata Motors, has car plants in Halewood and Solihull, as well as an engine facility in Wolverhampton. Reports suggest the firm could be losing as much as £50m per week during the shut down.
While JLR employees are being told to bank their hours while they are not at work, there are growing fears that hundreds of thousands of jobs in the company’s extensive supply chain could be lost before the crisis is solved.
Now more than 30 Members of Parliament from Merseyside and the West Midlands – where JLR’s UK operations are based – have written to Business Secretary Peter Kyle to warn of the precarious position of many contractors and to urge the government to consider a potential furlough scheme
In the letter, the MPs state: “JLR and its supply chain is one of the jewels in the crown of advanced manufacturing in the UK. Aside from the 33,000 employed directly by JLR, there are around 200,000 in the supply chain.
“More than two weeks since JLR paused production as a result of the cyber security incident, there is no date for production to resume.
“Many of us are in close contact with large businesses and SMEs in our constituencies who supply JLR directly or are part of JLR’s wider supply chain. It is clear that for some of these businesses, the cash flow situation is becoming serious.”
General view of Land Rover cars outside the Jaguar Land Rover factory on April 7, 2025 in Halewood(Image: Richard Martin-Roberts/Getty Images)
The MPs warned that if the shut down is prolonged, the predominantly UK-based supply chain “will no longer exist, as companies will shutter and will lay off skilled staff who are hard to replace.”
The letter adds: “We are glad that JLR and DBT (Department of Business and Trade) are conducting a supplier risk assessment, to understand the needs and resilience of each individual supplier and we encourage all those in the JLR supply chain, including those who do not supply JLR directly, to get in touch with the JLR supplier helpdesk.
“In the first instance, it is important that JLR, owned by Tata, take responsibility for ensuring that the companies they depend on are able to continue to supply them and we know ministers will make this point to JLR. But if the shutdown lasts for a prolonged period, ministers should consider the support tat the UK government can give to the JLR supply chain directly.
“We would encourage ministers to be creative and to seek the support of the British Business Bank and of commercial lenders. But ministers must also move with urgency to reassure workers and businesses that help will be available.”
The letter echoes warnings issued by the Unite union, which said a scheme must be introduced as soon as possible to ensure workers’ jobs remain open during the time it takes for JLR to to recover its operations.
In its latest statement, released on Tuesday, JLR said: “Today we have informed colleagues, suppliers and partners that we have extended the current pause in our production until Wednesday 24th September 2025.
“We have taken this decision as our forensic investigation of the cyber incident continues, and as we consider the different stages of the controlled restart of our global operations, which will take time.
“We are very sorry for the continued disruption this incident is causing and we will continue to update as the investigation progresses.”