More jobs go in caravan industry

About 800 East Yorkshire caravan workers have recently lost their jobs

An East Yorkshire caravan manufacturer has axed another 99 jobs - taking the total number of redundancies at the company to 350 in the last two months.

Swift Caravans, based in Cottingham on the outskirts of Hull, blamed the move on the deepening economic downturn.

It means 800 jobs have been lost in the local caravan industry since October.

Swift's marketing director Richard White said: "This is the third recession I've been through and I've never seen one cut so deep so quickly."

He said the business had been hit hard because its main customers, the over-50s, were reluctant to spend amid concerns over their pensions and savings in the prevailing economic climate.

It is very very difficult for people to lose their job with Christmas coming up Richard White, Swift Caravans marketing director

Mr White told BBC News: "I think this has been one of the most difficult times of my life and in the life of the company.

"It is very very difficult for people to lose their job with Christmas coming up, or at any time of the year.

"We only take these decisions after very very careful thought about the future of the company and everybody who works here."

However, he believed that by restructuring the business, Swift Caravans would be in a strong position when the economy finally recovered.

Meanwhile, 38 people are to be made redundant at Sandtoft Roof Tiles in nearby Broomfleet at the end of November.

The company blamed the cuts on a downturn in the housing market.