More jobs could be lost in Kent as car dealer group Inchcape - which runs premises including Tonbridge Audi - announced a programme of restructuring and cost reduction.

The move is understood to involve consultation on possible redundancies, but a spokesman for Inchcape said no numbers or final decisions had been confirmed.

In a statement the company said: "With the events in financial markets across the world in recent weeks consumer confidence has reduced substantially. As a consequence trading conditions have deteriorated significantly in the UK and are weakening in a number of our other markets.

"Following this deterioration in trading conditions and assuming this may continue for the foreseeable future, prompt and strong actions to reduce our cost base to a level appropriate to current market conditions are being taken.

"These actions apply to all our major markets, with the main impact across our UK businesses.

"As a result of this restructuring the annual cost reduction is expected to be approximately £50m.

"We expect current trading conditions to remain difficult for the rest of 2008 and throughout 2009. As a consequence we expect our underlying results for 2008 to be below consensus and for 2009 to be significantly below our previous expectations."