Life after Longbridge: three years on. Pathways to re-employment in a restructuring economy

Abstract

The closure of the MG Rover plant at Longbridge in April 2005 was one of the largest industrial failures seen in the UK for some 20 years, with around 6,300 workers losing their jobs when MG Rover went into administration, with several thousand more affected in the supply chain. The scale of the job losses in an already economically disadvantaged region, and the loss of the last remaining British owned car manufacturer combined to highlight the consequences of the ongoing decline of manufacturing and the associated human costs of structural change.