Swindon is better placed to weather the impact of Honda job losses than other car manufacturing towns, an expert has said.

It is a year until the Japanese car manufacturer shuts its South Marston plant, with the loss of 3,000 jobs – and a further 2,000 in the wider economy.

Paul Swinney, director of policy for think tank Centre for Cities, said Swindon had a more diversified export economy than somewhere like Sunderland, where thousands are employed by Nissan.

In Sunderland, around one in three jobs were reliant on Nissan compared to the one in seven jobs reliant on Honda in Swindon, he told BBC Wiltshire.

Mr Swinney said: “I would say Swindon is better placed to weather the storm than other places. Losing over 3,000 jobs in Honda then round about 5,000 jobs in total in car manufacturing in Swindon that’s a big blow.

“That’s a huge hole to try and fill in any economy but the good news is Swindon is in a better place to deal with this than a place like Sunderland where its economy isn’t quite as diversified and it would leave an even bigger hole.”

However, Unite union representative Alan Tomala, warned: “We don’t know what’s going to replace it. we’ve seen the introduction of low paid, low skilled work.

“That’s the worry: it’s going to be replaced by a low skilled, low paid economy rather than a high skilled, high paid economy.”