THE owner of Tata Steel has launched an attack on the work-ethic of British managers.

Indian tycoon Ratan Tata made the comments as Tata proposed to cut 390 jobs on Teesside and close or mothball part of its Scunthorpe plant, putting at risk 1,200 jobs.

Mr Tata, who is a member of the Prime Minister David Cameron's Business Advisory Group, and co-chairman of the UK-India CEO Forum, described his surprise at the attitudes of bosses at steel maker Corus and car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), which he bought in 2006 and 2008 respectively.

He told The Times: "It's a work-ethic issue. In my experience, in both Corus and JLR, nobody is willing to go the extra mile, nobody.

"I feel if you have come from Bombay to have a meeting and the meeting goes till 6pm, I would expect that you won't, at 5 o'clock, say, "Sorry, I have my train to catch. I have to go home".

"Friday, from 3.30pm, you can't find anybody in their office."

Mr Tata said that things are different in his native India.

"If you are in a crisis, if it means working to midnight, you would do it.

"The worker in JLR seems to be willing to do that; the management is not," he said.

The 73-year-old added that previously at JLR the entire engineering group would be empty on Friday evening, but said things had improved.

"The new management team has put an end to that. They call meetings at 5 o'clock," he said.

Yesterday Tata Group blamed a decline in the construction industry for the cuts in the North-East, but it also announced that it will invest £400m in its Long Products business over the next five years.