The laying off of 850 workers at Oxford’s BMW plant this week must be the biggest single blow felt by the local economy in recent times.

Ultimately, more than 1,200 agency workers have lost their jobs at Cowley in recent months and they add to the many hundreds, particularly in retail and motor racing, that have suffered similar fates in recent weeks.

All these closures and job losses have a ripple effect, but those at BMW have the potential to cause the biggest shock.

BMW plays a big part in the local economy. Suppliers of motor parts and other services are heavily reliant on the car manufacturer.

Its workers are also big consumers of goods and services in the local economy.

Of course, there was a time when the Cowley Works employed 30,000 people and its potential to disrupt the local economy was far greater than it is today.

The demise of the then Cowley Works led to the independent McCarthy inquiry into its implications for the local economy and into what should be done to mitigate the effects.

What came out of the inquiry was the proposal to redevelop the site of the works into a mixed-use business park, now the Arlington Oxford Business park, and significant investment in training schemes.

The park was meant to include a significant element of manufacturing, although today it is largely given over to offices for the likes of Blackwell, a number of firms of solicitors, and Government agencies. Its beneficial impact on the local economy though is without question.

While public inquiries and the like are out of all proportion with today’s events at BMW, it does not mean that no action is required.

We all hope that the economy will pick up and that many of these workers will return to BMW as demand for the Mini returns, but it is by no means certain how quickly this will happen, or whether BMW will return to the same levels of employment at any time in the forseeable future.

A variety of local agencies pledged this week to set up a task force to assess the effect of the redundancies on the local economy.

This must not be allowed to develop into a talking shop and we trust that there will be urgent focus on what action can be taken now to support not just BMW workers, but also the many others who are victims, through no fault of their own, of the present downturn.