Japanese automotive major, Honda has indicated that it is planning to cut about 800 jobs at its Swindon factory in the UK due to the fall in demand for vehicles across the European region.

Ken Keir, executive vice-president of Honda Motor Europe, said, "Sustained low demand in European markets make it necessary to realign our business structure."

The company announced its plans to the staff members at the factory when they arrived for work this morning. It will be the first major job cut by the company in the UK and has been described as a disappointing development by the union leaders as well as the government officials.

The company manufactures various models such as Jazz, Civic and CR-V models at the Swindon factory and it had produced about 150,000 vehicles during the previous year. About a third of the total production is sold in the UK while the remaining is meant for export to mainly other European nations.

The decision to cut jobs a dramatic fall for the company from a year ago when it announced an investment of £300million to expand production at the factory and hired 500 new workers. The company said that even as the total sales rose 7 per cent during the previous year in the UK, the demand did not rise in European region and the company recorded a fall of about 8 per cent in sales.