Enterprise Oxfordshire – working alongside colleagues from Oxfordshire County Council – played a central role in a high-profile visit on the 22nd October, as the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor was further positioned as a significant region to harness a future, globally-facing UK economy.
The visit – that brought together senior trade commissioners, overseas investment teams and representatives from the Department for Business and Trade’s Office for Investment – saw officials offered key insights into Oxfordshire’s international investment potential and long-term economic strengths.
The delegation toured a number of key Oxfordshire locations, highlighting the county’s world-leading innovation ecosystem and – away from the visit – a new investment prospectus for the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor was also launched at the Regional Investment Summit in Birmingham on Tuesday.
The prospectus, now available via the Government website, outlines how the region – anchored by two of the world’s leading universities – can serve as a driving force for the UK, rivalling global tech hubs such as Silicon Valley and Boston.
Within it, the new prospectus underlines how the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor is a ‘gateway to a supercluster of science, technology and commercial excellence’ offering the ‘UK’s most significant, long-term investment opportunity’.
It highlights key data to encourage investment, including the region’s collective GVA total of £143 billion per year, plus a number of Oxfordshire investment locations including opportunities at Harwell Campus, Culham Campus and the recently-opened £1.2 billion Oxford North innovation district.
The Oxfordshire visit included a dinner for officials at Oxford Brookes University as well as a tour of Harwell Campus itself – one of the world’s foremost science and technology business parks and a key member of the Advanced Research Clusters (ARC) network.
The sessions provided a platform to deepen visitors’ understanding of the region’s innovation-led economy and its capacity to deliver transformative growth for ‘UK PLC’.
The timing of the visit was particularly significant too.
Last Thursday, the Government announced a landmark £500 million investment into the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor, aimed at accelerating housing development, infrastructure upgrades and business space expansion across the region.
In Oxfordshire specifically, the Cowley Branch railway line is set to reopen after 60 years, with new stations planned at Cowley and Littlemore.
This is set to enhance connectivity between Oxford and Cambridge via East West Rail, linking communities and economic hubs such as Bicester, Milton Keynes and Bedford.
Meanwhile, in the prospectus’ foreword, Chancellor Rachel Reeves underlined the region’s potential and why its been identified as a significant area that will drive the UK’s future economy.
The Chancellor says: “The Oxford to Cambridge Growth Corridor is full of opportunities at the cutting edge of all that makes the UK an exciting place to invest, as you will see in this prospectus.
“With a rich tradition of academic research and expertise, and a track record of creativity and innovation, it sits at the intersection of our history and our future.”
Enterprise Oxfordshire became the new trading name of OxLEP on 1 April this year, marking the completion of a two-year process that saw a new mechanism of delivery agreed between Enterprise Oxfordshire and Oxfordshire County Council.
Since becoming Enterprise Oxfordshire in April, Oxfordshire County Council now act as the organisation’s 100% shareholder – this is known as a Teckal company arrangement.
You can find out more on the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor prospectus via the Government website.