Who's going to pay the mortgage?

Thousands of West Midlands workers are facing a desperate scramble to find new jobs in the wake of the collapse of MG Rover and the news of almost 5,000 redundancies at its Longbridge plant.

Among workers gathered at the main gate of the giant car plant yesterday the mood was sombre, the talk of redundancy, retraining and how to pay the mortgage.

As 51-year-old maintenance worker Roy Crook put it: "Yes, there are jobs out there but when you consider there's 6,000 people here and then all the suppliers and the people who sell the cars in the dealerships there are going to be a lot of people chasing the jobs available."

The government has promised a £150m package, part of which is to help with retraining workers who lose their jobs.

But as Michael Zammit, who has worked at the plant for the last 17 years, said: "This is all I know. There are jobs around, but they are not going to pay the mortgage. Many of them are low paid, minimum wage jobs. I just don't know what the future holds for me."

His wife Fay, who works at Land Rover, added: "Who's going to pay the mortgage while he is retraining?"

However, CBI chief Digby Jones urged the Rover workers not to be too downbeat, saying that other employers were desperately short of skilled workers. "At least people now have certainty. They are getting redundancy pay, getting help with retraining and help getting into new jobs. And if this leads to people getting sustainable jobs in the West Midlands, I really believe this is a day of hope as well as sadness."

Paul Maguire, 37, who was cradling his two-year-old daughter Morgan, said: "I'm lucky. I used to have a trade as a painter and decorator. I will have to brush up on that. You have to be optimistic, though maybe not in Birmingham."

Even Morgan is a victim of the MG Rover crisis. She usually attends the plant's nursery but yesterday she too was outside the gates.

Many workers are facing a double financial whammy. Alongside loss of their jobs and meagre redundancy payments, workers who had cars under the company scheme face having to pay hundreds of pounds - although adminis trators were clear yesterday there would be no instant mass repossessions.

The banking groups providing the car loans - HBOS and Lloyds TSB - stressed their sympathy for the workers' situation.

HBOS, which provides the loans through its Capital Bank unit, said: "The administrator has provided specific guidance on the Rover employee car scheme and has established an employee helpline. We will deal sensitively with Rover employees who have taken out a loan with us."

Lloyds TSB, which supplies car loans through its subsidiary Autolease, said: "We are very sympathetic to the plight of the Rover workers and realise this is a time of great uncertainty."

Alongside worries about redundancy packages and mortgage repayments, the workers are angry at the Phoenix con sortium which bought MG Rover for £10 from BMW in 2000 and whose subsequent stewardship is coming under increasing scrutiny.

Andrew Myers, who has been a production operator at the plant for 15 years, said: "Five years ago (Phoenix Venture Holdings chairman) John Towers came here drinking champagne and telling us all what he was going to do with this place. Now look where we are. Towers was Midlander of the Year a couple of years ago. He should give it back."

But the day's devastation was summed up by Jillian Pattison, wife of fork lift truck driver Robert, who has worked at Longbridge for 29 years. She said: "There are men here with young families, with mortgages. I have seen grown men crying today. The workforce has bent over backwards for this company and look what's come of it. It's diabolical."