The production lines at Longbridge are set to roar back to life later this year with Nanjing Automobiles looking to hire 400 new workers by September.

It is expected that the new recruits will hail mainly from old MG Rover staff that used to work at the plant. They will join a 40-strong team of designer engineers already based at Longbridge. Sarah Xuyan, from Nanjing, told AM: “We have already started to recruit people.”

The news will come as a welcome relief to some of the 1,850 workers that are still without jobs following the close of the factory last summer.

Production at the factory, which is due to start by April 2007, is expected to focus on the MGTF sports model. The majority of Nanjing’s manufacturing will continue to be carried out in China.