THE noises coming from the new firm with a controlling interest in Unipart is reassuring for hundreds of families.

Mention “multi-national private equity firm” and buy-out of a company and its employees will automatically get nervous.

Private equity firms are there to make a company as profitable as possible as quickly as possible, sometimes with the sole intention of making it an attractive proposition to then sell on.

But already there has been a public statement saying the company is with Unipart for the long-haul and the current workforce of about 200 in Oxford are secure.

What backs that up is H2’s involvement with a Dutch firm involved in the same sector.

Hopefully that demonstrates an understanding about what is involved.

The pledge to grow the business is also promising. It does not come with a guarantee of more jobs but hopefully that will be the outcome.

Oxfordshire could do with all the certainty it can get, especially from one of the county’s largest employers.

There has been a significant rise in unemployment overall – with almost two in 100 of those eligible to work now claiming benefit.