Yesterday Cabinet Member for Jobs and Skills Cllr Brett O’Reilly and I wrote to Business Secretary Greg Clark, urging him to review the proposed takeover of GKN by Melrose.

As one of the city region’s anchor employers, GKN plays an important role in the Midlands and Birmingham economy. It employs large number of workers, sources components from supply chains that benefit the economy, delivers exports for the region and the country, supports key assemblers like JLR, and continues to invest heavily in the future driveline technology needed by electric cars.

GKN operations in the city region include not only GKN head office at Redditch but also GKN Freight Services (Redditch), GKN Aerospace Services (Birmingham), GKN Driveline (Birmingham), GKN Driveline Services (Sutton Coldfield) and – not far away – GKN Wheels & Structures (Shropshire).

You can see our letter here.