Ford to cut around 1,300 jobs in the UK over the next two years - with almost 4,000 to go in Europe

Ford has announced they will cut around 1,300 jobs in the UK over the next two years - which is around 20 percent of its UK workforce. Most of the cuts in the UK will be at its research site at Dunton in Essex.

In total, Ford is looking to cut around 4,000 jobs in Europe. It  comes just months after Ford announced they will discontinue the Ford Fiesta, which was the best selling car in the UK. This came as a result of sales declining in recent years, with Ford focusing on electric cars.

The final Fiesta will come off the production line in June 2023, in Cologne, Germany. The Ford Mondeo, which was first introduced 30 years ago in 1993, saw  production come to an end on that model due to “changing customer preference”.

Cuts are going to be made across various sectors in its company. By 2025, 2,800 engineering jobs are to go with a further 1,000 jobs to be cut in the administrative, marketing, sales and distribution departments across Europe.

"Here in Europe we’ve got a pretty difficult economic situation, and the outlook is uncertain," said Tim Slatter, chairman of Ford of Britain. “High inflation, higher interest rates, the ongoing war in Ukraine, cost of energy and so on."

The company also said  it will liaise with unions and workers groups across the continent to reduce headcount via voluntary redundancies. Speaking to the BBC, Ford expects all cars in Europe to be electric by 2030.