Local MP Richard Burden who was told that the report has been completed, has quite rightly noted that "like everybody else in the area I have found it incredibly frustrating that we have had to wait so long for this report... so I now hope that the contents of the inquiry will be made available as soon as possible.

"'The escalating cost of the inquiry has also been a matter of real concern to so many people, including me. Hopefully the contents of the report will provide some answers to why it has cost so much and I certainly welcome the government's commitment to try to minimise the cost of any similar inquiries in the future. But the important thing now is to know what the report contains and I hope the government will be able to make a statement on that as soon as possible."

In an answer to a private question by Richard Burden, the business minister Ian Lucas said that in the future the government would carefully consider any similar exercises so as to "minimise" costs.

As Jonathan Walker pointed out in his News blog yesterday, there could be a delay before the report is published as its findings will determine whether any further action is needed. If action is needed, then publication of the report might be considered prejudicial to that action.

Things are further complicated by the fact - as the Birmingham Mail notes today - that the Phoenix Four have said no money pledged to ex-workers from the MG Rover Trust Fund will be paid until the inquiry report is published. The Mail believes that around £16m piled up from the sale of dealerships and the Studley Castle conference centre is stuck in a bank account, delaying potential pay-outs to former employees.

Not surprisingly, given the dire state of the auto industry worldwide, there is plenty of red ink; indeed Tata Motors reported its first annual loss in eight years, a loss of 25.05 billion rupees ($520 million) against a profit of 21.68 billion rupees last year.

JLR itself recorded a net loss of £281 million ($463 million) in the 10 months of the 2009 fiscal year that it has been on Tata's books. That comes after a £327 million operating profit in 2007 and £310 million operating profit in the first half of 2008. Since then conditions have deteriorated and the firm has cut nearly 2000 jobs and brought in special sabbaticals on 80% pay for over 300 hundred staff.

Names in the frame apparently include Malaysian group Westar, Indian group Mahindra and Mahindra, and Chinese car firm Nanjing, which bought Mg Rover's assets before itself being taken over by Shanghai Automotive. Other bidders may yet join the fray. The administrators have stated that there could "be some clarity around this within the next two to three weeks."

Not all bidders would aim to keep production in the UK. Whilst Westar have previously stated that they would aim to retain some production in Birmingham, other bidders may well look for a 'lift and shift' of assets and production out to India or the Far East.

The same cannot be said for the commercial vehicle sector; here production fell by a disastrous 73.5%, with firms lacking the credit and confidence to buy vehicles.

Ever since demand fell off a cliff last autumn when the financial system imploded, car producers have rapidly scaled back output as stocks piled up. Part-time working, lay-offs and lengthy plant shut-downs have been the norm in the industry. With assembly plants shut down or on reduced shifts, the knock-on effect has been felt down the supply chain; the number of jobs lost in the industry runs to 30,000+ even excluding the LDV workers.

Since then it has become clear that we were only partially correct. The 'traditional' mutual model has indeed held up quite well and the building society sector on the whole has not needed a vast state rescue as has the banking system (partly because mutual societies tend to look after their own).

However, it is now evident that some societies had got into much more risky business activity than many - including myself - had previously realised. The 160 year old West Brom, which has been rescued his week, is another example, after Cheshire and Dunfermline, having racked up losses of almost £50 million last year. The Society has assets of around £10billion, 850 staff, 350,000 customers and 46 branches - mainly here in the Midlands.

Since then it has become clear that we were only partially correct. The 'traditional' mutual model has indeed held up quite well and the building society sector on the whole has not needed a vast state rescue as has the banking system (partly because mutual societies tend to look after their own).

However, it is now evident that some societies had got into much more risky business activity than many - including myself - had previously realised. The 160 year old West Brom, which has been rescued his week, is another example, after Cheshire and Dunfermline, having racked up losses of almost £50 million last year. The Society has assets of around £10billion, 850 staff, 350,000 customers and 46 branches - mainly here in the Midlands

Swedish broadcaster SVT has reported that the Swedish luxury super car firm Koenigsegg was planning to buy Saab along with Norwegian investors.

Saab entered 'creditor protection' (a Swedish version of Chapter 11) back in February as GM sought to sell off the loss making brand, and the Swedish firm is trying to cut debts by 75% during this process. Saab confirmed last month that three bidders were interested in Saab and that they expected to complete the sale by the end of June.

Despite the global economic downturn, RR has received 1,500 'serious expressions of interest' in the new Ghost model which is set to be unveiled in September and launched next year. The Ghost model has generated much interest after a prototype has toured the globe. If these expressions of interest were translated into sales they could effectively double RR's annual sales.

It seems that firms - luxury brands included - can (and must) innovate and develop new products for new markets (witness the splendid Jaguar XF as well). In this sense, the new Ghost is critical for RR in extending its product range and moving into new markets. The model will especially aim at a lower price category and hence potential customers who would potentially go for a Bentley Continental Flying Spur instead.

The model could also appeal to the growing numbers of rich people in emerging markets such as Russia and China, even if 'mature' western markets move away from ostentatious displays of wealth, as some seem to suggest will happen post credit-crunch.

Yet that could well change over the next three years unless the UK government steps in, as the seismic changes that have unfolded in the world's auto markets threaten to wipe out mass van production in the UK, leaving only very small niche producers.

At the moment there are three main producers - Ford at Southampton, GM/Renault's joint venture at Luton, and LDV here in Birmingham. The latter has been in suspended animation since December when production was largely stopped as the double whammy of credit crunch and recession impacted.

If current trends continue, all three could effectively have gone by 2012, with all main van demand then having to be met by imports, and with jobs and capacity lost forever.

The key question for the UK government is: does it want a van industry in the UK? If so, it needs to step in with an industrial policy that can make that happen. LDV is a good place to start.

The firm has also swallowed some $20 billion in cash from the Obama administration and is likely to need another $30 billion before emerging from Chapter 11 substantially slimmed down, and free of debts. During Chapter 11, the firm will continue to function and assemble cars, and a judge will make the decisions on who gets what assets.

Whilst the old saying that 'whatever's good for GM is good for the US economy' may no longer be true (if it ever was) and GM is no longer the biggest car maker in the world, by some estimates it still accounts for 1% of the US economy. The bankruptcy then is not only hugely symbolic of the fate of the US car industry, but matters profoundly for the workers, suppliers, dealers and creditors caught up in its travails.

Readers won't need reminding that the van maker ceased production back in December after the double whammy of recession and credit crunch hit the commercial vehicle market, and LDV's Russian owner Gaz ran into its own financial troubles.

Critically, Weststar appears to want to maintain production at LDV's Washwood Heath plant, and also to expand manufacturing in Malaysia (where so far Weststar has imported Maxus van components and assembled them for Asian markets).

LDV employs around 850 workers at its plant, with another 1200 in dealerships. Several thousand more in the supply chain depend on the firm, although it isn't clear how many of these have already lost their jobs in the savage downturn affecting the industry and given that LDV hasn't made a van in months.

The "Unite for Jobs" march will bring together key figures from business, academia and politics to spell out the case for government action to protect jobs, especially in the manufacturing sector.

I didn't think I'd ever see the former CBI chief and trade minister Digby, Lord Jones of Birmingham marching alongside the joint general secretaries of Unite, Tony Woodley and Derek Simpson. Yet there they will be, at the head of the march, spelling out the need for government action.

I'll be going along as I think Digby, Tony, Derek and many others have a very strong case to make. In recent blogs I've been stressing the need to support not only JLR and the auto sector, but also manufacturing more generally.

There are very good reasons for doing so, as one day (we don't know when) this recession will be over, and we will need a strong manufacturing exports sector to drive growth. Financial services, consumers, property and construction will recover but they won't quite drive growth in the way that they did before. Manufacturing will matter.

That deal is not yet completed, but the news keeps LDV in the game and offers hope that it can indeed pull off yet another famous recovery.

The loan, from the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR), will - it's hoped - prevent the Brummie van maker from sinking into administration and keep the firm going whilst the deal is sorted out.

Whilst it isn't clear whether Westar, a Malaysian vehicle importer with whom LDV have long-term ties, has guaranteed that production will remain in Britain, it is doubtful whether the British government would be lending the money if UK production wasn't on offer.

Westar is probably the only hope to keep LDV going in Birmingham. If LDV had been forced into administration tomorrow, the most likely outcome would be another lift-and-shift of LDV assets and knowledge out to the Far East as we saw so painfully with MG Rover four years ago.

The scrappage scheme will run until March 2010 or until the money runs out. The UK is the last major EU government to set up such a scheme.

However, the auto industry will itself have to provide matched funding, with £1000 from government and £1,000 from dealers for each car traded in for a new model.
The cost to the exchequer is £300 million, with another £300 million from the auto industry. Unlike it France, the scheme won't be restricted to smaller, greener cars.

The UK scrappage scheme will be much smaller than Germany's, which is costing the government there some €5bn (around £4.5bn) and which has - it is estimated - lifted sales by 40% in March year-on-year.

Is this a 'Soak the Rich' or rather 'throw a slightly damp cloth at the rich' budget as John Clancy wondered aloud in the live Birmingham Post Budget blog coverage today? Well, with a new top rate of tax of 50% for those earning over 150K, Darling aims to tax the rich to some extent to get borrowing down.

However, whilst last November Darling highlighted the future tax rises on the rich, the bulk of the fiscal tightening will - it seems - come mainly through slower growth in public expenditure after 2011. The key question here is whether this will impact on front line public services.

The new top rate of tax of 50% for those earning over £150K also leaves Cameron in a potentially tricky position. Will the Tories back this (to get the budget deficit under control) or will they pledge to reverse it?