Businesses in Oxfordshire have welcomed the UK government’s industrial strategy, announced on Monday 23 June.
Intended to help create favourable conditions for key UK sectors, the strategy also focuses on increasing business investment and capturing a greater share of internationally mobile capital.
Of the eight key growth sectors identified, Oxfordshire excels at six: life sciences, digital and tech, the creative industries, advanced manufacturing, clean energy and defence. There will be an £86 billion investment in R&D targeted towards these sectors, by leveraging private investment in cutting-edge research, technologies, and commercial applications.
The industrial strategy also promises to enable investment and growth in city regions and clusters and names both the UK’s first AI Growth Zone at Culham, and the Oxford Cambridge Growth corridor, where support will be deepened to ensure that more businesses are pulled into ‘the orbit of the best UK talent, innovation, and academic collaboration’.
The government, through the strategy, pledges to build links between regions, an example being East-West Rail, a major new cross-country rail line cutting journey times significantly between Oxford and Cambridge that will enable the delivery of up to 100,000 new homes and create thousands of new jobs by expanding the commuting populations, adding £6.7 billion a year to regional GVA by 2050. The Oxford Growth Commission will develop a long-term investment strategy focused on Oxfordshire.
Dr Steve Gardner, CEO of Precision Life in Long Hanborough, which specialises in developing precision drugs for people with long-term chronic conditions, commented that he felt optimistic that life sciences has been prioritised, as a sector which has felt the lack of access to capital especially in comparison to the USA, China and the EU and hoped that the strategy will strengthen these companies in the sector as well as increasing the number of specialist venture capital firms specialising in life sciences.
Helen Ryan-Wallis, Head of Strategic Development and Programmes at Enterprise Oxfordshire welcomes the launch of UKs modern industrial strategy and Sector Plans, having worked with Government over the last few months assisting development of 5 of the 8 high-growth sector plans that Government expects will drive forward the UK economy. Oxfordshire as a county, and as a key part of the Oxford to Cambridge Growth Corridor is well placed to deliver on the Government’s ambition.