Jobs saved as Tata clinches buy from Ford

The future of 16,000 jobs was today secured, for the next few years at least, as ownership of iconic British marques Jaguar and Land Rover passed from Ford to India's Tata.

The sale price is thought to be as high as $2.65 billion (£1.3 billion). Tata has had extensive talks with car union Unite, and promised to keep on the workforce in the West Midlands and Merseyside.

Analysts said that, while Tata is expected to commit to an existing five-year plan, jobs could start to shift to low-cost India after that.

Tata and Ford have been haggling over the deal for three months.