Dealing with Auto Industry Rundown and Closures: a perspective from Birmingham Challenges facing Mono-Sectoral Cities, Open Days 2010

Picking up the Pieces

• Government Package: c.£176 million
• £50 million: training
• £40 million: redundancy payments
• £24 million: loan fund to help otherwise viable businesses
• £41.6 million: support MG Rover suppliers sustain trading
• EC: up to £68 million of regional aid could be used
• RDA: £42 million on redeveloping the Longbridge site
• RDA: June 2005: £7.5 million on supplier diversification

Business Support

• 170 component suppliers received cash through the wage replacement scheme;
• This kept around 3000 workers in jobs during the critical months after collapse, with 1329 confirmed ‘saved’
• Advantage Transition Fund: make loans to firms

2. The workers...

• Where are the ex-workers 3-4 years after the closure?
• Where the workers have found work and where they live?
• How the workers have been affected by the closure and how they have coped?
• What support they have had, how useful it was?
• What work or education or training they have gone onto?
• Where they have worked?
• Whether they have experienced unemployment?
• How they feel about their new jobs?
• What has been the impact of the closure on their health?

2. The workers

• ‘Third wave’ survey of ex MG Rover workers in April 2008 based on two previous surveys from the Work Foundation. Follow up, in depth interviews in 2008/9.
• UNIQUE LONGITUDINAL ANALYSIS
• Three Waves:
• Wave 1: July 2005 (3 months after the closure)
• Wave 2: December 2005 (8 months after the closure)
• Wave 3: April 2008 (3 years after the closure)
• In April 2008, 204 respondents participated in the survey -
• 176 from Waves 1 and 2, 9 from Wave 1 and 19 new volunteers.

3. The respondents and the spatial impact

• Our respondents were representative of the MG Rover workers
• 90% male
• Mostly in the 40’s and 50’s
• 80% were married (compared with 42% in the West Midlands)
• 93% were home owners (compared with 70% in the West Midlands)
• Majority worked in Powertrain and Manufacturing
• Variety of occupations with skilled, professional or technical occupations – only 11% had no qualification (compared with 18% for the West Midlands)
• 98% worked full-time
• Average salary in 2005: £514 a week compared with £444 for a man in the West Midlands.