The future isn't necessarily bright but it's a hell of a lot brighter than it was 12 months ago

Joe Clarke factory worker

So, a year ago, when BMW announced it was breaking up and selling Rover, the cold hand of dread clutched the hearts of the shopkeepers.

The potential buyers, Alchemy, wanted to transform Longbridge from a mass manufacturer of a range of saloon cars to a small specialist sports car operation producing around 50,000 MGs a year.

This would have cut the workforce by 5,000 overnight and four times that in the supply chain, devastating the local economy.

In the end the plant was bought by the Phoenix consortium, headed by former Rover boss John Towers, now chairman of the MG Rover group.

Under the deal BMW kept the profitable Cowley plant in Oxford, where it is manufacturing the "new Mini", and washed its hands of Longbridge.

In the spring of 2000 the uncertainty in the West Midlands was immense. Now cautious optimism has returned.

Sense of relief

John Horwood, who runs a hardware store in Rednal, says every shop was affected, and sales have been down in the past 12 months because Longbridge workers have been cautious with their money.

Only now, as new models start to come out of the factory, is there a sense of relief.

"Everybody's happier, much more relaxed, rebuilding themselves after the crisis," he says.

Trade is starting to pick up in local shops

Joe Clarke is a union convener at Longbridge who campaigned against the Alchemy bid and for the company to stay together.

Ironically, he is still working for BMW in the engine plant at Longbridge.

But that is expected to be taken back into the MG Rover Group soon and Mr Clarke says confidence is growing.

"People here have still got their jobs. Anyone who's left here has left on a voluntary basis.

"The future isn't necessarily bright but it's a hell of a lot brighter than it was 12 months ago."

'Minor miracle'

MG Rover says it is cash rich, despite reports it has racked up losses of �300m.

That is the sum that was factored into the five-year business plan to which I was given exclusive access last December.

A third of the losses were because of 12 weeks of lost production of the Rover 75 as it was moved from Oxford to Birmingham, but there is a feeling the losses could be much less when the figures are released in May.

Most industry analysts say a car company producing 200,000 cars a year cannot survive unless it is part of a larger group.

A year ago Nick Matthews, from the International Manufacturing Group at Warwick University, dismissed the four members of the Phoenix Consortium which eventually bought Rover as "four blokes from Birmingham with an overdraft".

Today he is revising his opinion, saying it is "a minor miracle" 5,500 people still work at Longbridge and the medium-term future can be secured with new models produced in partnership with component companies.