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focus on oxford ... continued from previous page


over the past six years – one of the fastest outside London.


According to this year’s Sunday Times ‘Best Places to Live’ compilation, Oxford is a prime location to settle down – no doubt based on some of those ‘Good Growth’ criteria of jobs, income, skills, health, etc and academic qualities, Also, the retail delights of the redeveloped Westgate complex won’t have harmed Oxford’s ‘live-ability’ rating.


The £500 million Westgate Oxford, opened last October, is integral to the city centre regeneration plans. It now covers 800,000 sq ft and has space for 100 shops, restaurants, rooftop dining, a cinema, plus car and cycle parking. Created by the Westgate Oxford Alliance, the shopping centre provides 3,500 full-time jobs. An estimated 15 million people will visit annually.


Unlike many cities, Oxford has its own local airport. London Oxford Airport near Kidlington is the only commercial airport between Heathrow, Birmingham and Southampton


…and economically…


According to Oxford City Council’s latest economic profile (January 2018), Oxford contributes £7.34 billion to the national economy. Unemployment is less than 1%. Oxford’s GVA per worker is the seventh highest of UK cities – similar to Swindon, higher than Cambridge.


The city’s economy provides one third of Oxfordshire’s jobs, and Oxford is home to a diverse industrial base with around 5,000 businesses providing 135,000 jobs.


Almost 65% of the resident population in Oxford is employed in professional and


but Oxford’s economy itself has a low percentage of manufacturing employees in common with other fast-growing cities such as Reading and Cambridge.


BMW’s Plant Oxford in Cowley accounts for nearly half the city’s industrial space, and, with 80% of Minis exported, Oxford plays an important role in balancing UK international trade.


The city also attracts significant inward investment, and, as a tourism gateway to central England, Oxford is the seventh most popular UK city for overseas tourists, annually hosting roughly seven million visitors.


…and in the future?


In March, Oxford City Council published its Oxford2050 vision for the city, a framework for future council policies and developmental decisions.


The Oxford Mail reported that Oxford City Council leader Susan Brown identified housing and transport as key future challenges.


Oxford2050 proposes protection of Oxford’s heritage and natural environment alongside the construction of low-rise residential apartment blocks to make the city an affordable place to live.


Making existing housing stock carbon neutral by retrofitting and new homes being built on a small percentage of Oxford’s ‘green belt’ was also suggested.


Expected to increase in coming years, the city’s student population will live mainly in purpose-built accommodation to reduce private rental market pressures.


Geographically, Oxford is well-placed centrally in England – no doubt the reason it became our capital city during the 1640s civil war, and why Hitler banned its bombing – apparently he planned to make Oxford his post-war capital.


In leisure terms, Oxford is on the Thames and Cherwell, with the Cotswolds, Chilterns and Lambourn’s White Horse Downs a short country drive away.


The M40/A40, A44, A420 and A34 provide the major local travel routes notably to Birmingham and the Midlands, the Thames Valley M4 corridor and London – each bringing Oxford significant traffic volume concerns.


26 businessmag.co.uk


technical occupations, higher than the South East (49.9%) and England (45.5%).


The city’s key industries, just under half classed as public sector, are health (John Radcliffe Hospital NHS Trust), education (no other regional city has two global HE institutions – University of Oxford, Oxford Brookes University), research, technology, tourism, car manufacturing, and publishing.


Fewer than 50 employers provide over half the jobs within the city. Major private-sector employers include BMW (UK), Unipart Group, Centrica, Amey, Nielsen and TripAdvisor.


Oxford lies within Motorsport Valley, a £9b automotive cluster covering Oxfordshire and the Midlands,


“Oxford needs innovative transport solutions,” Brown accepted, highlighting the removal of traffic congestion.


Another underpinning Oxford2050 aspiration is for the city to become globally recognised as a digital-age exemplar of the knowledge-based economy, with businesses clustered in technology parks near the city borders.


The city council carried out extensive consultation with residents, businesses, universities and other stakeholders, whose ideas and aspirations helped form the Oxford2050 ‘blueprint’. It will be updated every four years as a living document reflecting technology advances and current thinking.


Readable in full at oxford2050.com the aspirational document has five themes:


THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – MAY/JUNE 2018


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