Thousands of staff at two Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) car plants have been sent home, while chocolate production has been halted at Cadbury’s Bourneville factory, amid water shortages in the West Midlands caused by burst water mains after the recent cold weather.
The local water company, Severn Trent, said it had asked a “handful of big businesses” to shut down factories as it tried to prioritise household supplies.
Neither JLR nor Severn Trent could say how long the shutdown would last at its Solihull and Castle Bromwich plants, which employ 14,000 people between them making models including the Range Rover, Land Rover Discovery and Jaguar F-Pace.
But even a temporary closure is likely to prove costly for JLR, given that about 450,000 vehicles a year – more than 1,200 a day – roll off the production lines at the two factories.
Mondelēz, the parent company of Cadbury, said the UK’s chocolate supplies would not be affected by the temporary shutdown at its historic Bourneville site because it had “sufficient stock available to manage through this hopefully short disruption”.
The UK’s water regulator, Ofwat, warned it would not “hesitate to intervene” if suppliers were found to have been ill-prepared for the cold weather, after thousands of homes were left without water. Severn Trent is expected to have to pay compensation to JLR as a result of the shutdown.
Water companies have blamed the situation on the rapid thaw after last week’s snow and freezing temperatures. Thames Water previously advised its customers to limit their water usage while it dealt with the aftermath of the thaw, after at least 23,800 households were left without water.
Welsh Water said unprecedented challenges had affected 4,500 homes, while Scottish Water said it had not suffered a significant problem because the thaw had been less rapid further north.
Severn Trent earlier apologised to people in the Birmingham area who experienced shortages while it dealt with a 4,000% increase in the number of burst pipes. It said JLR and Cadbury’s temporary closure would help it put domestic customers first.
“We’ve been working with a handful of big businesses in the area about ways they can reduce their water usage, in the same way that we’re asking our customers to do the same in their homes,” said the utility.
“This is all part of our normal procedures to prioritise getting water to households and vulnerable customers including hospitals and care homes to keep them on supply. As we work to get the network back to normal, we’re also ramping up production at our treatment works, bringing in extra teams to fix the bursts and using our tankers to support local hospitals.
“We’d like to thank the few businesses we’ve been working with over the past couple of days for all of their help.”
A message to staff in Solihull from JLR advised staff to check a Facebook page for employees of the factory.
JLR said: “Employees are being sent home and those due to attend work on the night shift this evening are being stood down. We will continue to keep employees informed as the situation develops.”
Rachel Fletcher, chief executive of Ofwat, said: “When the taps are back on, we will take a long, hard look at what has happened here and we won’t hesitate to intervene if we find that companies have not had the right structures and mechanisms in place to be resilient enough.
“While the recent severe freeze and thaw have undoubtedly had an impact on pipes and infrastructure, this weather was forecast in advance. A number of water companies appear to have fallen well short on their forward planning and the quality of support and communication they’ve been providing, leaving some customers high and dry.”
