Jaguar Land Rover to cut 1,000 jobs due to Brexit sales slump and diesel confusion

​Britain’s biggest carmaker Jaguar Land Rover is set to cut 1,000 jobs in the West Midlands, due to a slump in sales caused by uncertainty over Brexit and the future of diesel.

According to the Guardian, the cuts will affect 1,000 temporary contract workers at JLR’s plant in Solihull, and have been triggered by a 26% drop in UK car sales in the first three months of 2018.

The company is expected to say that customers are delaying purchasing new vehicles because of confusion over the government’s policy on diesel cars, which went up in price from 1 April due to an increase in vehicle excise duty. Most of JLR’s UK sales are diesel vehicles.

In a statement JLR said: “In light of the continuing headwinds impacting the car industry, we are making some adjustments to our production schedules and the level of agency staff. We are however continuing to recruit large numbers of highly-skilled engineers, graduates and apprentices as we are over-proportionally investing in new products and technologies.”