Warwick District Council is fully supportive of Jaguar Land Rover’s aspirations to expand further in their Coventry and Warwickshire heartland and will work closely with the company to assist in any way that it can.

Jaguar Land Rover's Chief Executive Dr Ralf Speth said last week that the company would like to, ‘double production from 500,000 to one million cars a year’ and was considering plans for a new battery manufacturing plant to produce batteries for new generation electric vehicles which could also be manufactured in the Midlands.

He has challenged the UK Government to assist an expansion on this scale and the construction of new manufacturing facilities by helping to upgrade power supplies and investing in surrounding infrastructure.

Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya, Chairman of Warwick Manufacturing Group, part of Warwick University has indicated that JLR’s vision for growth could see 10,000 new jobs created in the West Midlands.

Councillor Andrew Mobbs, Leader of Warwick District Council said; "JLR is already heavily represented within Warwick district and the council has worked closely with them on their expansion at the former Honiley airfield site at Fen End, allowing them to relocate their Special Vehicle Operations division to the site which has its own test track. We have also approved planning permission for the major expansion of their research and development facilities at Whitley South, between the A45 and Coventry airport and construction is due to start in 2017. We will continue to work closely with the company whenever and wherever appropriate, to assist them with their planned future growth which is a key component of the continuing success of the Coventry and Warwickshire economy”.