Jaguar Land Rover has announced thousands of job cuts as it grapples with tough conditions in the car market, Donald Trump’s tariff wars and the fallout from a cyber-attack.

Britain’s largest carmaker, which is owned by the Indian conglomerate Tata, confirmed the anticipated cuts on Monday, saying it wants to reduce its 34,000-strong UK workforce by about 4,000 over two years, as part of an effort to save £1.7bn.

JLR’s proposal to slash 12% of the UK workforce threatens to provide an early reality check for the new prime minister, Andy Burnham, and his promise to “reindustrialise” Britain.

JLR’s profits have tumbled as it wrestles with strong competition in the global car market, Trump’s US tariffs and last year’s hack, which led to the shutdown of its factories.

The JLR chief executive, PB Balaji, said: “The automotive industry faces significant challenges, with technological change amidst intense competition and ongoing geopolitical uncertainty. Through our Growth Reimagined strategy, JLR is moving decisively to strengthen our competitiveness and position the business for long-term success …

“As part of this transformation, we will reduce our global workforce by around 4,000 roles over the next two years. We recognise this will be difficult news for colleagues affected, and are committed to supporting everyone with care, fairness and respect.”

The business minister, Jonathan Reynolds, has ruled out using taxpayers’ money to deter the company, which is headquartered in Coventry, from pursuing the redundancies.

Reynolds will hold talks with Balaji and Sharon Graham, the general secretary of the Unite union, on Tuesday. Graham is expected to push for JLR to favour retraining and redeployment over compulsory job losses, if it cannot achieve enough redundancies voluntarily.

The cuts, first reported by the Sunday Times, will be weighted towards more senior roles in management and research and development rather than shopfloor production workers, sources said at the weekend.

Speaking on the BBC on Sunday, Reynolds indicated that no bailout would be available but hinted at other options to support carmakers.

JLR announced the job cuts as the chancellor, John Healey, made an economic speech at the Manufacturing Technology Centre in Coventry, just a few miles from the carmaker’s offices. Healey said he wanted to “draw the line” under rising business costs.

Last year’s hack eventually cost the company about £200m and contributed to its pre-tax profit falling to just £14m, from £2.5bn a year earlier.

The government last year agreed to underwrite a £1.5bn loan to JLR to help it recover from the hack but the carmaker has not tapped the facility.

JLR has also suffered the fallout from Trump’s trade tariffs, which hit sales of models such as the Range Rover and the Defender as the company seeks to expand further in the US market.

Trump imposed tariffs of 27.5% on British cars last year, before cutting the figure to 10% as part of a trade deal between the UK and the US announced at JLR’s Solihull plant.

Balaji said the cuts were aimed at “reducing organisational complexity” and would mean the company could break even on sales of about 300,000 vehicles a year, making it better able “to compete in a rapidly evolving market”.

Carmakers have faced tough trading conditions as Chinese manufacturers’ sales have surged across the UK and Europe, giving companies such as Chery and BYD a manufacturing foothold in the regions.

JLR follows Volkswagen in announcing large-scale job cuts, after the German carmaker said last week that it intended to make 50,000 more people redundant as part of a turnaround plan.