Iconic British brand to cut 4,000 jobs amid competition struggles

The government has ruled out a bailout

Britain's largest carmaker is set to cut thousands of jobs including voluntary redundancies as part of a cost-cutting drive to save £1.7 billion over the next two years.

Jaguar Land Rover, owned by the Indian company TATA, announced on Monday morning that thousands of jobs are set to be lost amid competition struggles, mainly from the Chinese market.

The cuts will happen over the next two years and are expected to mostly affect office roles which affect its UK operations.

Around 34,000 staff are based in the UK.

A government bailout has already been ruled out by Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds.

Chief executive PB Balaji said the firm was "committed to supporting everyone with care, fairness and respect" through the redundancy process.

Reynolds told the BBC: “A company the size of JLR, which is a huge British success story, at various times in its business cycle, the number of, directly, people it employs will change.

“If this is about making sure over time that the workforce is right to make the business as competitive as possible, that’s the conversation we need to have.

“Of course you want to mitigate any job losses.”

Asked if there could be financial support to protect those jobs, he added: “Not if it’s to bail people out.

“If it’s about long-term investment in the future, we do invest alongside industry on that.”