The £35m car park: In a picture symbolising the economic crisis gripping Britain, an old RAF airbase is packed with new cars that nobody wants
- Fewer than 1,000 cars were sold across the UK last month, a drop of 97 per cent
- In Bicester, Oxfordshire, a former RAF airbase is chock-full of unwanted motors
- The figures were found amid rising concerns that worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s is on its way
The brutal impact of the pandemic on the economy was laid bare yesterday by figures showing that fewer than 1,000 new cars were sold last month.
As households were warned to brace themselves for the worst recession in living memory, the motor industry revealed that sales of new cars plummeted by 97 per cent in April to the lowest level since 1946.
The scale of the crisis affecting the industry is highlighted by this striking photograph of an overflowing car storage facility at the Upper Heyford airbase near Bicester, Oxfordshire.
The former RAF base is keeping row after row of brand new vehicles – including luxury Range Rovers and Jaguar sports cars – worth at least £35million.
Pictured: The former RAF Airbase in Bicester, Oxfordshire with £35million worth of cars parked in rows
Normally, it would be used to store cars for a few days or weeks before they go to showrooms. But the pandemic has closed showrooms and forced would be car buyers to stay at home, meaning just 871 cars were sold to households last month compared with 68,000 in April 2019.
Sales of fleet and business vehicles were also down significantly, from 93,000 to 3,500.
Most were snapped up by key workers, as well as frontline services and companies that have had to keep operating during the lockdown.
The figures, from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, mean the industry is on course for the worst year since 1992, when the economy was in recession.
As Prime Minister Boris Johnson prepares to lay out plans to get people back to work, details emerged of the damage inflicted by the lockdown.
One in ten British firms – some 591,000 businesses – are now at high risk of going bust as a result of the pandemic, according to analysis published today.
The report, by the CEBR think-tank and polling company Opinium, also warned that more than a quarter of a million firms will not be able to survive if the lockdown lasts for another month.
Pictured: An image from April in Bicester, Oxfordshire showing thousands of new and used cars are stacking up in storage on a disused RAF airfield after car sales dropped by a huge 97 per cent in the last month
Meanwhile, a survey showed the UK’s dominant services sector contracted at the fastest pace on record last month.
According to IHS Markit/CIPS, the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for services – where anything above 50 represents growth – dropped to 13.4 in April.
This is by far the worst score since the survey started in 1996. The previous record low was 40.1 during the financial crisis in November 2008.
Tim Moore, of IHS Markit, said: ‘April’s PMI data highlights that the downturn in the UK economy during the second quarter will be far deeper and more widespread than anything seen in living memory.’