Longbridge to see new cars built

About 6,000 workers lost their jobs in the MG Rover collapse

Cars are set to be made again at Birmingham's Longbridge plant - three years after the factory was shut.

Chinese owners Nanjing have revealed plans to produce up to four new models there over the next five years, with production starting on 1 August.

About 6,000 jobs were lost when MG Rover collapsed in April 2005.

The first vehicles off the production line, 500 limited edition MGTF sports cars, are expected to be delivered to showrooms in September.

The Longbridge plant will then continue to build standard models of the MGTF, which had been produced before the MG Rover collapse, before work starts on a replacement for the car.

Nanjing, which bought the MG Rover assets, said the new models were also likely to include a large luxury family car.

The firm said 57 dealers were already signed up to sell the cars, mostly in the UK, many of which were former MG showrooms that branched out to sell other makes of cars following the collapse of the firm.

This breathes confidence back into the region's manufacturing sector Jerry Blackett Birmingham Chamber of Commerce

Nanjing said it would also be setting up a new research and development centre at Longbridge which would work with their designers already based in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, to create the new models.

Business leaders in Birmingham said it was the news they "had been waiting to hear".

Birmingham Chamber of Commerce chief executive Jerry Blackett said the pledge to produce the new models "breathes confidence back into the region's manufacturing sector".

He added: "While we do not expect to see a return to the car volumes manufactured at Longbridge in the past, we can see a real role for niche manufacturing and assembly work which is now going to happen.

"The Longbridge site itself has an exciting long-term future as a leading centre of innovation and research, clustered around the very best of our manufacturing potential."

'Exciting and busy'

Hundreds of workers are already being drafted into the factory to help with pre-production.

The total number of jobs that could be created is not yet known.

Most of the parts for the new cars are expected to be shipped in from China, rather than made in Longbridge, as they were prior to the MG Rover collapse.

Last May, Nanjing said it planned to start making some MGTF models at Longbridge in September 2007.

However, the plans were delayed when the company merged with rival carmaker Shanghai Automotive.

The announcement coincides with the appointment of a new chairman at Nanjing, He Xiao Qing.

Mr He said: "I am delighted to have been appointed at such an exciting and busy time in this young company's history."