Sky reporting that Honda Plant may close

[SoloD]

Not confirmed by Honda as yet but no denial.

3500 jobs at risk and many more in the supply chain. Heart goes out to those involved, but they are highly skilled workers so let hope if this is the case they will find new jobs quickly.

There does seem to be a pattern emerging. Vital investment in the UK automotive sector has dropped 76% since the vote, despite government funding to prop up the sector.

We were told this was project fear, well it turns out it's project reality. I fear Honda won't be the last, Ford and Mini have both said they will pull out if there is a Hard Deal Brexit.

Milly - the OECD figures paint a completely different picture on FDI, last 2 Q's are down -47%, remember FDI also includes foreign takeovers of uk companies.

I don't know how they get these unemployment figures but friends who ve had to seek work, find it extremely difficult to get full time above min wage jobs.
Something some honda workers have commented on in the Swindon area.

I was talking to my son today, Coxwell, he's doing a hard science degree, and I suspect he's already looking towards the Netherlands ... he wants to work in genetic research

Just in case he decides to look for work in the UK...

5 Dec 2018: Pharma giant UCB is to invest around £1 billion in the UK as part of a second life sciences sector deal with the UK government, with industry names such as Roche and IQVIA also committing to projects.

The deals are part of the government’s second Life Sciences Sector Deal, with 10 companies investing in the UK and pledging to support healthcare innovation, and create high-paid, high-quality jobs as part of the government’s overarching industrial strategy

In what was described as a vote of confidence in UK industry, Belgian pharma company UCB announced it is investing £1 billion, including a new state-of-the-art R&D facility The facility will support around 650 jobs.

There will also be more than £80 million investment from five cell and gene therapy companies

pharmaphorum.com/news/ucb-roche-and-iqvia-take-lead-in-uk-life-sciences-investment/

Nov 2018 £438 million investment for UCL gene therapy spinouts

www.ucl.ac.uk/school-life-medical-sciences/news/2018/nov/ps438-million-investment-ucl-gene-therapy-spinouts

Thanks for that info, I'll have a good read.

If your son is doing a hard science degree he will have a great future in the UK. No need to go to the Netherlands!
There is a huge amount of investment in high-tech sciences (not enough of course, but still good.). And the UK economy is healthier than most. Lots of good news for Philip Hammond today:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/business-47251723

Its great that Hammond has more money BUT Tax receipts are always higher in January, esp with the huge growth in self employment but given the state of our roads, NHS, Education & social care, why isn't Hammond spending more? i wonder why he isn't ?
Maybe its to do with his dire predictions for the UK economy because of Brexit?

Only 6 trade deals rolled over (out 60) Turkey and Japan nowhere completed, despite Fox's reassurances 2 years ago everything would be.

Experts estimated a £10bn surplus, so a £14.9bn figure is excellent news for the economy.

It’s normal for blue collar jobs to go under in developed economies especially in times of economic downturn/uncertainty. I spent my entire childhood hearing people moaning about closing car factories and how this justified import taxes/protectionism. The upshot was that they all closed down anyway but everyone was driving shitty cars. Developed nations aren’t really supposed to have this kind of work. It’s ridiculous to educate people until the age of 18 only for them to then go work in a factory.

@jasjas because the ‘extra’ has to go towards reducing the deficit in the hopes that one day the country will stop running up debts and start paying them off

Car factory jobs aren't the unskilled work they used to be. 40 years ago when I moved to Oxfordshire, the car factory at Oxford had something like 32,000 employees, with people doing very mundane jobs on the line, but admittedly for decent money. Now those jobs have gone and much of it is automated and the factory employs about 5,000 people.