was laken in Du, Ils delalls were in fact never revealed. Even now it is not public.
Dul mne economist explalnit thas fisst ang bebiced: tee alloulccu.
Edwardes' Plan will mean that a lory government cannot be accused of having acted dogmatically when BL Cyclltually has to be wound up in, say, two years' time, after About of disruption.
In other words, the plan TABLE (figures in fm, adjusted to show 1979 costs)
Actual Edwardes' investment would allow for the break-up of BL and the closure of half its niants. using the excuse of in dustrial disruption, and after a two 'softening-up' the workforce.
The record so far confirms this plan. Edwardes has UK workforce from 180,000 to 120,000.
He has closed and Park Royal, assembly at bromwich, and Belgium nounced the brand new Rover Solihull SD1 plant. Increase The total "restructuring' ding to BL's own balance sheet, was £146m -£20 inçrease to every choloyec Edwardes along the closure argues inat costs are driving HTIT lower than pean competitors.
The Economist report on the motor industry pointed out that in 1976, uluual warc CUsLo Der cinolove vere highest at $19,000, follow GM, Chrysler, 'lovota Nissan at $14,400.
four years later spent three year period of employee.
decline cut the WCoLtuCul. per machinery, Abingdon produce the goods.
and stopped Canley Castle Seneffe profitability and has now anclosure of the ed by , Edwardes.
being eaten sales.
cost of this in 1980, accor- the only way to save they would enough to pay a Leyland did and modernise taking road. BL He they could high it to the wall.
wages are nearly all its Eurofigures to cover up.
Daimler-Benz's running down VW, Ford, working capital.
and then Lucas Birmingham Brakes Automotive Products Leamington Spa brake nads reroco chadel en ie rritt Mintey Yorxsnire How car components firms rely on Leyland BL's costs are less than two-thirds of Nissan and in 1980 -- they still on- tion alone. $9,000 each The real reason for BL's systematic Without the pro. normal no amount of ettort trom the worktorce car this investment is the criterion of used by the owners, and which has been usThroughout the 1970s, BL's private owners saw their profits into by declining If they had been concern. ed to keep the industry going • vestments jobs have done their more toresighted rivals pulp ululcy lu Instead they milked it for all get, and left scabour covennmenl lo sort oul the mess under nationalisation. ment plan Between 1968 and 1974 they paid out £70m to shareholders, £17m in interest charges, and a the same time falsified profi posal.
They did this by failing to allow cash to replace used equipment, and by we culpally s Workers at Cowley produced figures to show that working finance of Transmissior Radiators Leamington Spa capital was cut by £100m in the two years before nationalisaThe Ryder report, on which Labour's nationalisation was based in 1975. showec the effect on equipment.
an industrv where the turnover for fixed wo thirds of Bl quipment is t years, over •us Dar wa T9, had a hind aras more and a third was than 12 years old Assets In 1978 BL had £5,375 in assets for every employee : compared with Toyota's £15,000 The result was that to save exceptionally were neeoeo. kvoe explained that 'very large sum. l lc culc uce vided from external sources to finance the new capital investneui amu ouner acuon reuuirec to make BL a viable business'.
Ryder proposed lVCSL• of f1.3bn at 1975 prices. As can be seen trom the table, even by 1978 when Edwardes came in, investment was dropping behind Ryder's pro.
In his plan, Edwardes cut this by a further third.
In fact , following a detailed study of BL in 1980 by the Transport Union and TASS the white collar section of the engineering union, government at least £1,449m
Transmission casings
lest Yorkshire Foundry (€ Lianeli (oL would be needed over the next five years to save BI L as a viable concern. I nIs Is tyssm more than Edwardes proposes to spend The result will not be a tota. closure of all BL plants — but it will mean the break up of BL selling off a relatively smal number of plants lo interna tional buyers, and the reducLON DI present self o a snauow ol lls As the Financial Times in August 1980 Salu, 'The prospects for the UK industry are heavily dependent on BL in spite of severe cutbacks, IS SUll capable of making be: ween 900,000 and one millic? cars a year. End "It needs to retain tha capacity maintain pretence of being a volut.e ?:: ducer. Any further cut in BCaracitv wowu cauce lei. pany to a specialist car ii cern In short it would mear the end of British Leyland as we know it today, the loss of jobs in the industry as whole anything between half million and a million jobs.
This is exactly where the Edwardes' plan leading.