Cars impact property market

There could be properties coming up for sale or to rent and severe unemployment difficulties in Brackley, near the legendary Silverstone race track in Northamptonshire, and at Vauxhall car plants at Ellesmere Port on Merseyside, and at Luton in Bedfordshire, if Britain??â??â??s car industry and its many commercial offshoots were allowed to collapse

The Japanese car giant Honda has its Grand Prix base at Brackley. But it??â??â??s quitting Formula One. The team had a budget of ??Â?500m. 750 people work for the team ??â??â?? and an unquantifiable number of people in the area who perform other tasks for it.

Two or three bidders have emerged. But at what price? Nobody can afford such massive budgets in these straitened times. Whatever happens to the Honda race team there will be job losses. Everybody on the team is working a three month redundancy period.

Whether this spells the beginning of meltdown for Formula One is anybody??â??â??s guess. But the sport??â??â??s big wigs have been saying that budgets have been spiralling out of control and that a number of other teams could be on the verge of quitting.

It is suggested the other Japanese giant Toyota might pull out of Formula One. It would have been too great a loss of face had Honda stayed. But now Honda have quit, Toyota ??â??â?? as spectacularly unsuccessful in Grand Prix as Honda ??â??â?? would find it easier for to depart.

The question marks over Formula One ??â??â?? it??â??â??s always been as much about business and money as it has about sport ??â??â?? is symptomatic of a wider malaise over the car industry.

Car sales have plummeted in Britain and across Europe. The three manufacturers who own the bulk of America??â??â??s car output have pleaded for US government money to bail them out. If they crashed the effect on unemployment would be catastrophic.

Vauxhall in Britain ??â??â?? owned by General Motors in the US which wants an immediate loan of $3bn from Washington ??â??â?? is reported to have had talks with British government business boss Lord Mandelson about being propped up with British government money. Ford and Honda in the UK want to have similar meetings to ensure they do not miss out on any competitive advantage which a move by Mandelson might give to Vauxhall.

Vauxhall is an iconic brand in Britain. It employs 5000 workers in Britain at plants on Merseyside and in Luton. It began in 1903 and was taken over by GM in 1925. In 2000 GM cut car production at Luton ??â??â?? it now only makes vans ??â??â?? when 2000 jobs were lost after profits hit rock-bottom. The collapse of Vauxhall would jeopardise, in all, an approximately 50,000 workers in dealerships, parts suppliers and other businesses.

Estate agents and landlords are among those trying to assess the impact of any closures in Britain??â??â??s car industry on the property sectors in the affected regions.