At Toyota’s plant in Derbyshire, staff have been working shorter hours since April. But on Wednesday the Japanese car giant said the company’s workers could start full-time production again – a need they attributed to the success of the government’s “cash for bangers” programme.

Toyota, Hyundai and Fiat are some of the biggest beneficiaries of the scheme, which aims to reinvigorate the moribund car market. But car dealerships have also gained and two of the biggest – Lookers and Pendragon – have used half-year results in the past couple of days to call on the government to extend the scheme.