Longbridge's slow revival

By Rob Pittam
Working Lunch

The huge rescue operation that swung into operation when Rover collapsed three years ago seems to be working, if only just.

Some doubt that mass production will return to Longbridge

Much of the economic meltdown that was predicted for the region by the media and others has failed to materialise.

Of the more than 6,000 workers who lost their jobs, only 139 are still registered as out of work today.

Back in the business

Of course, behind those figures are stories of struggle and worries for the workers themselves.

Anil Chandra's experiences are typical of the disrupted lives and plans that former Rover workers have had to face.

Three years ago, he was furious that the company he had worked at for 23 years had collapsed.

But, an accomplished saxophonist, he was also determined to take up the training on offer to pursue a career in music.

So what happened to those dreams?

Mr Chandra is now back in the car industry, this time working as a consultant.

It means long days away from home and long evenings killing time, much of it spent in a snooker hall in Crewe.

It has taken Mr Chandra three years to get his salary back to the level he was on at Longbridge.

But there is one bonus.

He now works a four day week - the fifth is reserved for pursing his musical ambitions

Lost camaraderie

John Archer is another who has taken three years to get back to his old Rover wages.

Mr Archer gave up on manufacturing altogether and retrained as a gas fitter.

But the training took two years and it was another six months before he could get a job.

Mr Archer now travels across the Midlands and, like Mr Chandra, misses the camaraderie and atmosphere of the Longbridge plant.

Doubts about the future

During its heyday, Longbridge was a major employer

And what about the site itself?

There has always been something symbolic about Longbridge.

For years it was a symbol of Britain's manufacturing might. Now it seems to be a metaphor for our changing economy.

Mass manufacturing has left, the production line has literally been shipped to China and the developers' diggers are crawling all over the site.

Plans by the Chinese carmaker Nanjing to revive large scale car production at Longbridge are now looking doubtful after a key supplier, Stadco, withdrew from a deal to make MG TF roadster body shells earlier this month.

New investment

But it is not all doom and gloom.

Slowly, new life is coming back to Longbridge.

Those diggers are the first phase of an ambitious regeneration programme.

It will cost £750m and could create up to 10,000 jobs.

Some are already there.

A newly completed innovation centre has attracted 20 small, mainly high tech, firms, which employ 120 people.

It is a far cry from the economic powerhouse that Longbridge once was, but it is a start.

Property development

Mike Murray, from the property developers St Modwen, is in charge of the project.

Nanjing is the current owner of the factory

He believes that the location of Longbridge, close to Birmingham city centre and the motorway network, will bring in the employers and the jobs.

He is acutely aware that Rover provided the heart to a community - a heart that's now been ripped out, scattering workers like Mr Chandra and Mr Archer across the country in search of jobs.

Mr Murray's plan is to build a new centre, with houses, jobs and parks, and even to re-open a river that was buried under the old factory.

New jobs?

But former workers like Mr Chandra watch the building work and wonder if there will ever be jobs for them there.

He fears that an economic downturn and worries in the property market will mean the site remains empty.

It has taken three long years for the wounds of Rover to begin healing and still the process is not complete.

It will be 15 years before the new site is finished.

No-one knows how long it will take former Rover workers to recover from the damage to their careers, to their salaries and to their lives.

The recovery programme is underway, it seems to be working, but only just.