Paul Johnson, chair of the Swindon and Wiltshire LEP (Local Enterprise Partnership), said: “We hugely regret the loss of 800 jobs, this is bad news for Swindon, the local area and most importantly the employees directly affected.
“While we understand the market pressures Honda UK faces, this will have an inevitable impact on our ambitions for the region and reinforces the need to prioritise other investment opportunities. Advanced Engineering is an area in which we were keen to provide further growth to balance our local economy and not be reliant on one sector.
“We are pleased that Honda will still support the community in which they operate and will continue to invest in apprenticeships. They have reassured us that they remain committed to Swindon. We have a highly-skilled workforce and Swindon is still one of the top five locations in the UK to do business. We now have a lot to do and we will be engaging with government and business to ensure that we minimise the impact this has on our economic ambitions.”
