BMW will invest  £500 million towards the production of the next generation of the Mini in the UK, safeguarding 5000 jobs. It also means the next generation of iconic Minis will be manufactured by Britain’s highly-skilled automotive workforce in the country where they originated in 1959.

While Nissan’s announcement that it will build its Qashqai car model in Britain, means an investment of £192m and safeguards a further 6000 jobs.

John Cridland, CBI director-general, said: “This major investment from Nissan is great news for the UK economy and crucially will secure thousands of jobs in Sunderland and Bedfordshire.


“Nissan’s choice to build its Qashqai model here is a testament to the excellence of British manufacturing and the skills and technical expertise of the workforce in this country. 



“UK manufacturing has already been shown to be at the vanguard of the economic recovery and the strength and world-class reputation of the car-building sector here will make it a valuable contributor to growth and job creation.”