Jaguar Land Rover rescued with £1.5bn government-backed loan after crippling cyber attack

The authorities volition underwrite a £1.5bn indebtedness warrant to Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) aft a wide cyber onslaught forced a shutdown.

JLR suspended accumulation astatine its UK factories pursuing the cyber attack connected 31 August. The shutdown is expected to past until 1 October, leaving the largest UK carmaker's suppliers successful limbo.

The indebtedness is expected to springiness suppliers immoderate certainty amid the continued shutdown, arsenic the £1.5bn volition assistance bolster JLR's currency reserves arsenic it pays backmost companies successful its proviso chain.

The authorities volition springiness its backing to the indebtedness done the Export Development Guarantee (EDG), a fiscal enactment mechanics aimed astatine helping British companies that merchantability their goods overseas.

The £1.5bn loan, from a commercialized bank, volition beryllium paid backmost implicit 5 years.

"Following our decisive action, this indebtedness warrant volition assistance enactment the proviso concatenation and support skilled jobs successful the West Midlands, Merseyside and passim the UK," Business Secretary Peter Kyle said.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves added: "Jaguar Land Rover is an iconic British institution which employs tens of thousands of radical - a jewel successful the crown of our economy.

"Today we are protecting thousands of those jobs with up to £1.5bn successful further backstage finance, helping them enactment their proviso concatenation and support a captious portion of the British car industry."

As a effect of the attack, accumulation was halted crossed the car-making proviso chain, with thousands of unit disconnected work.

More than 33,000 radical enactment straight for JLR successful the UK, galore of them connected assembly lines successful the West Midlands, the largest of which is successful Solihull, and a works astatine Halewood connected Merseyside.

An estimated 200,000 much are employed by respective 100 companies successful the proviso chain, who person faced concern interruption with their largest lawsuit retired of action.

Ministers person had regular interaction with JLR and cyber experts pursuing the onslaught arsenic the institution attempts to restart accumulation astatine its UK factories.

Unions and politicians person warned that tiny suppliers producing parts for JLR could illness arsenic a effect of the shutdown unless they person urgent fiscal support.

This week, Mr Kyle met workers and bosses astatine Webasto, which makes sunroofs for JLR.

Read more: Small firms reliant connected JLR person 'weeks left' earlier harm 'untenable'

The marque has the largest proviso concatenation successful the UK automotive sector, which employs astir 120,000 radical and is mostly made up of tiny and medium-sized businesses.

The government's committedness of underwriting the JLR indebtedness has been praised by the Unite union, whose wide caput Sharon Graham said the indebtedness was "an important archetypal measurement and demonstrates that the authorities has listened to the concerns raised successful meetings with Unite implicit caller days".

She added: "This is precisely what the authorities should beryllium doing, taking enactment to support jobs.

"The wealth provided indispensable present beryllium utilized to guarantee occupation guarantees and to besides support skills and wage successful JLR and its proviso chain."