JLR shutdown a ‘wake up call’ for UK’s cyber resilience

The shutdown affecting car giant Jaguar Land Rover following a cyber attack should come as a “wake up call” for other companies, a business professor said.

David Bailey, Professor of Business Economics at the University of Birmingham, said JLR, which has plants in Solihull, Wolverhampton and Merseyside, had been unable to make any cars this month. He estimated to the lost output to be about 24,000 vehicles.

The halt in production had hit profits by about £120m already, and £1.7bn in lost revenue, he said.

The firm was big enough to survive it, he added, but warned the supply chain was more vulnerable and that government intervention was necessary to save the industry.

Professor Bailey said ministers would have to intervene through a version of furlough and through loan guarantees.

He said other countries, such as Germany, already had systems in place to enable automatic part-time working at a time of shock in specific industries.

“We need to start thinking about how to build the resilience of the manufacturing system,” he said.

Sarah Coombes, Labour MP for West Bromwich, said she had had multiple meetings over the past week with businesses in her constituency affected by the issue as well as government ministers.

“The government is very aware of how aware about how important this industry is and how many jobs are involved,” she said.

Ministers were looking at “different options” but had not yet decided on what form its response might take, she added.

Meanwhile, Bradley Thomas, Conservative MP for Bromsgrove, told BBC Politics Midlands the attack had been a massive blow for JLR and urged the government to keep “every option on the table”.

The Tories would support the government on the issue, he said.

Helen Morgan, Liberal Democrat MP for North Shropshire, said the firm’s parent company TATA should be the first port of call to support its supply chain.

She added that the treasury needed to think about the long-term cost if the companies supplying JLR went under, and that she felt it would be better value to the taxpayer to prevent that from happening.

Professor Bailey added it was already a difficult time for the car industry due to tariffs imposed by the USA, and that the company would not be in a position to support its entire supply chain without government assistance.

There was currently no end in sight for the disruption – and the firm said they would not resume production until at least 24 September.