Car manufacturer Honda is stopping production at its UK plant for two months because of the "dramatic change" in the global market, the firm has announced.

The plant at Swindon will not produce any cars next February and March, although a company spokesperson said that none of the 4,800 workers will be laid off.

The Japanese company is the latest carmaker to scale back production because of the economic downturn, following previous announcements affecting production of cars including the Mini, Nissan and Land Rover models.

Honda had already planned to have 13 non-production days at Swindon next February but has decided to extend the cutback and will also scale back carmaking at two plants in Japan and the United States.

Honda said it was reducing car production at Swindon in the current financial year from an originally announced 228,000 units to 175,000 units.

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