West Midlands to be worst hit by recession

Dec 2 2008

THE West Midlands is set to be worst hit as the UK's manufacturing sector heads for recession, a report has warned.

Research for the Engineering Employers Federation suggested that tens of thousands of jobs are set to be axed in the UK and trading conditions will be among the toughest for 20 years.

A survey of more than 800 firms highlighted that the sector was now going through a "significant and sustained downturn".

The business group's chief economist Steve Radley said manufacturing was now heading for a recession as deep as the downturn in the early 1990s when an estimated 400,000 jobs were axed.

He called on the Government to take urgent action "in days and weeks rather than months" to improve the cashflow to firms after revealing that banks had withdrawn overdraft facilities or made other changes "overnight" which were causing huge problems to industry.

Some form of state guarantee on lending might have to be