ROLLS-ROYCE has reported a net loss of nearly £4 billion and has warned job losses could be on the horizon.

The manufacturing company, which has a major plant in Barnoldswick, saw revenue fall from £15.4 billion to £11.7 billion over the course of 2020, a loss of £3.9 billion.

This comes with the aviation industry across the country devastated by the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Rolls-Royce chief executive Warren East said: “We have taken decisive actions to enhance our financial resilience and permanently improve our operational efficiency, resulting in a regrettable, but unfortunately very necessary, reduction in the size of our workforce.

“With the support of our stakeholders we successfully secured additional liquidity with a rights issue, bond issuance and further credit facilities put in place during the year.

“We have made a good start on our programme of disposals and will continue with this in 2021.”

The company has already cut 7,000 jobs over the past 12 months, however 350 jobs were saved at the Barnoldswick plant following a three-month industrial dispute.

The Unite union meanwhile, which represents workers at the Barnoldswick plant and which led opposition to the proposed job cuts has called on the government to offer a long-term plan to support the aviation industry and safeguard jobs in the sector.

The union believes that the government needs to offer more incentive to airlines to establish routes that meet public needs, which will stimulate demand for aerospace manufacturers like Rolls-Royce.

Unite national officer for civil aviation Oliver Richardson said: “The free market approach to regional connectivity has been a failure.

"Airlines operate routes which are profitable and these don’t match the areas where connectivity needs to improve.

“If the government is serious about regional connectivity, it needs to establish a cohesive set of public service obligation routes, ensuring that airlines fly to destinations where connectivity needs improving.

“Such PSO routes can be linked to environmental requirements, which airlines bidding for the routes would have to meet. This would create clear incentives to the airline industry to embark on the green revolution, which is required if the UK is to meet its climate targets.”

However, Laura Hoy, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown Laura Hoy has described the Rolls-Royce results are “brutal” and has warned that the company is likely to be “bogged down by losses well into the future."

She said: “No amount of cost-saving and restructuring was enough to offset massive declines in civil aerospace, the group’s largest division.”