Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has described reports that it will make 700 people redundant at Halewood as “completely ridiculous and wide of the mark”.

However, it did confirm that some temporary staff will leave at the end of their contracts. The car maker was responding to stories in the press that up to 800 employees are facing the prospect of redundancy at the plant, which makes the Range Rover Evoque and Land Rover Discovery Sport models.

In addition to permanent employees, the company recruits staff via the Manpower agency.

A JLR spokesman said: “I can confirm that we will not be retaining all of the agency staff who have joined us recently on temporary assignment.

“We have had four years of continuous growth at Halewood; each year, we have retained most of our agency workers, which has helped to more than treble our permanent team.

“However, we cannot continue to grow the permanent workforce indefinitely; to remain globally competitive, we must find our optimal operating level for full-volume production this year.

“The key point is that demand for our two vehicles is strong, and we continue to operate on three shifts, 24 hr a day.

“Following the successful launch of the new Discovery Sport, we have some exciting investment projects ahead of us, such as the new Evoque Convertible, which will launch out of Halewood towards the end of the year.”

He added that Manpower will help the affected workers to get another placement when their assignments at Halewood come to an end.