focus on oxford & oxfordshire 19


Bicester is already one of the fastest- growing areas of the county, thanks in no small part to North West Bicester’s development as the UK’s first eco-town.


At the same time, Oxfordshire County Council is delivering a multi-million pound series of improvements on the county’s roads.


These include an £11m scheme to provide additional capacity at the busy A34 Milton Interchange with the aim of enhancing the Science Vale’s connections to the national road network, and ensuring the local road infrastructure can cope with the anticipated 20,000 additional homes and 20,000 new jobs expected in the Science Vale area.


Science Vale is home to major scientific projects such as the national synchrotron Diamond Light Source, and incorporates the Harwell Campus, Culham Science Centre and Milton Park.


The Knowledge Spine illustration showing priority growth areas etc


The fact that Oxford and Oxfordshire have been granted City Deal status by the Government provides a further boost to progress, helping to speed up the devolution of decision- making powers from government departments by putting control into the hands of local authorities and their key partners


And, to the north of the city, work has begun on improvements to the Cutteslowe and Wolvercote roundabouts to cater for the expected growth that will come from the development of the city’s Northern Gateway.


Both the County Council and the District Councils work closely with the Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership (OxLEP), which sees investment in infrastructure as being key to the future success of Oxfordshire.


The organisation, a key driving force for strategic business growth and championing the Oxfordshire economy, recently appointed Jeremy Long, chief executive of European business for MTR Corporation, as its new chair.


THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – APRIL 2016


The Strategic Economic Plan (SEP), currently being refreshed, sets out the ambitions for the county’s economic growth.


It provides a narrative on the attributes, challenges and opportunities within the local economy and identifies the ambitions required to encourage growth and to help gain an appropriate slice of government funding for the necessary work to take place.


The fact that Oxford and Oxfordshire have been granted City Deal status by the Government provides a further boost to progress, helping to speed up the devolution of decision-making powers from government departments by putting control into the hands of local authorities and their key partners.


As part of the deal, the Government allocated £30m of funding for the development of four innovation hubs in Oxfordshire and this summer will see the opening of the first two – the Begbroke Innovation Accelerator and Culham Advanced Manufacturing Hub. Two more, the Harwell Innovation Hub and the Oxford Bio-escalator in Headington, will follow.


In addition, through the City Deal, £22m has been allocated for key projects to support the innovation agenda – Science Transit, Northern Gateway and Access to the Enterprise Zone (EZ), to improve infrastructure across Oxfordshire and enable better access to the county.


continued overleaf ... www.businessmag.co.uk


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