32 focus on oxfordshire


Clearview and Crown get major support


During a speech last month, Vince Cable, the business secretary, welcomed research showing that one in six companies reshored production in the past three years and announced the latest winners from a £245 million government supply chain fund which is helping to rebuild British manufacturing prowess.


Nine projects, including two in Oxfordshire, will receive £129m of support – £53m of government funding is leveraging in more than £75m of private money. The projects will directly create 1,369 jobs and safeguard a further 2,525. At least 57 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are involved in the successful consortia.


A wide range of key sectors from the Government’s industrial strategy are represented, including automotive, construction, information economy and life sciences.


Clearview Traffic Group, based in Bicester, will receive £4m of support as part of a £6m project to streamline their supply chain, strengthen intellectual property and boost overseas sales. Clearview is the market leader for intelligent solar powered road studs or ‘cat’s eyes’. In partnership with two other British firms, it will relocate manufacture of its products from overseas to Britain, leading to 49 jobs being reshored and 37 existing UK jobs being safeguarded.


Likewise, Crown Packaging, based in Didcot and Wantage, will receive a grant of £1.9m as part of a £3.8m project it is leading with partners in West Yorkshire and Carlisle. This project will develop a new and innovative metal can manufacturing process, creating up to 32 permanent jobs and safeguarding 267 jobs.


Cable said: “Britain is starting to win back business on the basis of hard-headed business decisions based on quality and good performance. Through our industrial strategy the Government is working in partnership with business to nurture these encouraging signs.


“Our backing for skills, apprenticeships, supply chains, innovation and new technologies are creating the right environment for business to invest here. The supply chain funding announced today is another practical example of intelligently targeted government support helping UK firms to keep ahead of the game.”


Science Vale gets £7m funding


Science Vale, Oxford is receiving up to £7 million to build a highly specialised laboratory and bioscience innovation hub.


The funding, part of a £415m cash injection to back business, boost high streets, create jobs and help local economies thrive, was announced by communities secretary Eric Pickles. The announcement comprises:


• £300m to give 300,000 small retail firms £1000 off their next tax bill;


• £100m to support critical business infrastructure in Enterprise Zones;


• £15m to establish new University Enterprise Zones in the eight main UK cities, including Oxford.


Pickles said: “As part of our long-term economic plan, we are backing business and enterprise right across the country, helping town centres and local industries to prosper, and building a stronger economy.


“This money for infrastructure will transform acres of Enterprise Zone land and build a stronger, more competitive business environment that will create up to 3000 jobs for hardworking people across the country.


“While, our fully funded £1000 retail discount will make a huge difference to


www.businessmag.co.uk


James Dipple, managing director of Milton Park, with culture minister Ed Vaizey


300,000 of the essential small shops and local traders we find in our town centres across the country.”


Twelve Enterprise Zone bids have been shortlisted to complete critical ‘nuts and bolts’ infrastructure that will turn dormant sites into prime economic land, attracting new businesses and jobs to Harlow, Humber, Leeds, Sheffield,


Discovery Park in Kent, Oxford, Daresbury, Alconbury, London’s Royal Docks, the Black Country, Nottingham and the Solent.


Oxford’s Science Vale Enterprise Zone will receive funding of up to £7m to build a 4,000 sq m highly specialised laboratory and bioscience innovation hub which will create 370 new jobs at Milton Park.


Culture minister Ed Vaizey, visiting Science Vale, said: “Enterprise zones are at the centre of our long-term economic plans to build a stronger, more competitive business environment and a better future for Britain.


“This funding will give these areas the infrastructure they need to attract more investment, support the growth of local businesses and create up to 3000 jobs for hardworking people across the country.”


James Dipple, managing director of Milton Park, said: “This announcement is great news for Oxfordshire, as it will further strengthen the county’s highly successful life sciences cluster. The Government’s contribution will help us provide exactly the type of environment which small and growing life science businesses desperately need, located in the heart of Milton Park’s well established hub of 50 life science companies.


“Public-private partnerships such as this, with business investing alongside government, create opportunities for local employment, national success and healthcare advances which will be used around the world.”


THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – APRIL 2014


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