Leyland needs $3700M—paper

Press, 31 December 1980, Page 6

Leyland needs $3700M—paper

NZPA-Reuter <j.- London) The State-owned British Levland, Britain’s biggest ve-| hide manufacturer, will ne,ed ; up to $3670 million in Gov-1 ernment aid over the next five years ttF survive, a spe-l cial report has said. I “Even then it will never i join the world league of companies capable of producing two million. vehicles a year,” said the .. independent report by the University of East Anglia. "But it will have a place as a largescale regional producer, with $O,OOO men building one million vehicles a year,” it said. The report was published as management and unions met in a last-ditch effort to resolve an 11-day strike which has halted , production of the. companies newest product, the Mini Metro compact. The futuye of B.L.’s Austin-Morris division is said by the company to depend on the success of the car. B.L. has threatened to 'dismiss the 1200 strikers unless they return to work next Monday. 5 The ’ university’s Professor Krish Bhaskar, ah authority!

,nn the British motor ini dustry, said in the report that B.L.’s poor record on [industrial relations could [affect the Government’s [ [decision on granting vital aid to the company. . i I Professor Bhaskar said the j 1 dispute had strengthened: [those in Government who did not wish ’to give ; B.L. any more state cash, “Despite it being..in the; Government's interests to support 8.L., the industrial! relations question is more crucial than ever. The next tew weeks and months will be decisive,” he said. If B.L. crashed, up to three million people could be thrown out of work at the company and ’’ independent industries and’services jand Britain’s balance of payments would suffer by ■524,500 million, the professor !said. .. [■ Unemployment in the Midlands, the cradle of Britain’s industrial revolution, could reach 30 per cent, compared with a national average of' about 9 per cent, he stated. With Government backing,; R L could be returning a profit of $735 million a year, ‘by 1985, he predicted.