Government plans to revive the Oxford to Cambridge Arc have won favour in one of the Thames Valley’s innovation hotspots.
Science Minister Peter Kyle has said the Government wants to double the economic output of the Arc region, including in both university cities and the manufacturing and logistics hub of Milton Keynes between them.
Oxfordshire’s three million sq ft Milton Park, the UK’s largest single ownership innovation campus, where a new Local Development Order (LDO) was finalised to ease planning for more accommodation, is at the heart of the newly-embraced region.
Philip Campbell, commercial director for MEPC Milton Park (pictured), said: “Hot on the heels of the adoption of Milton Park’s new 4.2 million sq ft Local Development Order (LDO) and simplified ten-day planning regime, we welcome the Government’s decision to back the Oxford-Cambridge Arc.
“When combined with the necessary investment and policies to support growth, adopting a place-based approach to infrastructure requirements will be the most effective way to unlock the region’s extraordinary potential.
“Now is the time for the Government to set the right foundations.”
The Government has said it wants to place research and development as a driving force to grow the economy and called the Arc region an ‘engine of prosperity. Both universities have welcomed the move.
A report by consultancy Public First for the Oxford-Cambridge Supercluster Board, which is made up of industry and university leaders, has suggested fast-tracking the scheme to rival the science and technology clusters of Boston and San Francisco in the US would add £78 billion of GDP to the UK economy by 2035.
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