FORD has denied speculation that it is to introduce a four-day week at the Dagenham production plant where it makes the Fiesta. The car-maker put staff at the Halewood Escort plant on short time earlier this year, but said it had no plans to reduce production at Dagenham in response to rumours of oversupply to dealers.

Ford faced the reverse problem on Fiesta 12 months ago when a production problem delayed early supplies of the Fiesta and sales to date this year are in excess of 130,000 units.

Total UK car production in October smashed the existing record by reaching almost 180,000 units - more than 50,000 units higher than the same month last year . Production for the year now stands at 1.41 million units - a rise of 10% over last year's figure of 1.27 million.