Jaguar Land Rover back in the black as boss longs for tax cuts

Jaguar Land Rover’s boss yesterday said it would be ‘lovely’ to see corporation tax fall to zero – as its parent company considers where to build a gigafactory.

The car maker’s chief executive Adrian Mardell said a decision by Indian group Tata on whether to site the battery plant in the UK or Spain was near a ‘final determination’ – having taken longer than expected. 

Asked about the corporation tax environment – after the UK put up the rate from 19 per cent to 25 per cent despite the opposition of many businesses – he said: ‘It would be lovely if it was zero, wouldn’t it? We’d all love that.’

Mardell welcomed the Government’s Budget measures granting business tax breaks which he said have ‘really started to incentivise investment’.

‘Not everything that happens here is bad,’ he said. ‘But increasing the competitive advantage of producing vehicles in the UK is what I vote for and obviously the elimination where possible of additional costs including taxes would be wonderful.’

Tata’s gigafactory will make batteries for JLR vehicles but Mardell insisted that its location would not change where the cars are built.

‘Our tie and our emotion is in the UK, and from my perspective that will continue irrespective of this decision,’ he said.

JLR swung back into the black with a profit of £97m for the year to the end of March, compared to a loss of £455m a year earlier, as supply chain constraints eased. Sales rose 25 per cent to £22.8billion.