Tata Motors Ltd, India’s largest auto maker, said its Jaguar Land Rover unit is investing £355 million to build the plant to develop a new range of advanced, low-emission four cylinder petrol and diesel engines. This will directly create between 750 and 2,000 jobs.
It gave the green light after Government ministers backed the project with £10 million of public money.
The plant will be located at i54 South Staffordshire, a business park near Wolverhampton.
Jaguar Land Rover employs 19,000 people at its three British plants and indirectly supports up to 140,000 related jobs.
Jaguar Land Rover’s parent company, Tata Group also owns the Corus steel business, Tetley Tea, Brunner Mond chemicals and is reported to be investing up to £7.5 billion to expand its product range.
Mr McCluskey said the announcement was the result of 18 months of hard work by a great many people on all sides including Unite, the local council and local Labour MP Jack Dromey.
“A forward-thinking approach and total determination by the local unions to bring new work to the UK ensured a competitive labour agreement could be reached to secure this new plant.
“It is excellent news for manufacturing at these difficult times, and
most of all, it will be celebrated by the Jaguar workforce and their families whose hard work, and sacrifices, have helped Jaguar not just weather the worst global downturn for generations, but to grow.
“This illustrates perfectly how a business can thrive when it works with its workforce and their unions, building on their skills and commitment”, said Mr McCluskey.
Meanwhile, on a smaller boutique scale, a new version of the once popular British sports car the Jensen Interceptor (1966-76) is to be built at a revived motor plant in Coventry.
A company called CPP Global Holdings will engineer, develop and build the vehicle at a former Jaguar plant, the 23-acre Browns Lane site acquired from Advantage West Midlands.
The company said it hopes to start delivering the car to customers in 2014 with public unveiling of the new-look Interceptor planned for late next year.
CPP has five factories in Coventry and owns the Bowler company, which makes racing versions of the Land Rover Defender and Range Rover models, and the Spyker sports car marquee.
