City Deal
City Deal ensures we are able to support the county's economy through a £55.6m programme.
This funding brings forward £1,216m of additional investment from local partners and the private sector - combined, it creates a total new investment package of £1,271.6m for Oxfordshire.
This funding will be used for various schemes aimed at improving Oxfordshire's position as a dynamic economy, supporting our substantial global assets. By 2021, this Deal will create at least 18,000 jobs and accelerate the delivery of 7,500 homes across the county.
Below is a summary of each project supported by City Deal allocations for Oxfordshire.
- Total Project Cost: £28.2m
- City Deal Awarded: £6.1m
- Delivery Partner: Oxfordshire County Council
- Project Status: Harwell Link Road and Hagbourne Hill works completed, Harwell Campus entrance and Relief to Rowstock ongoing
The Access to EZ City Deal package is made up of the following transport projects:
- Harwell Link Road
- Hagbourne Hill
- Harwell Campus Entrance
- Relief to Rowstock
More than 5,000 people work at Harwell Campus each day, and this package will deliver an array of benefits to those currently living near and working at the campus.
By improving the local transport network, the package will provide the confidence necessary to attract more business investment and high-skilled employees.
The project was also designed to improve national and local connectivity and boost local employment opportunities with links to new housing developments and further improvements to the road networks planned.
Project impacts:
- Increase capacity and reliability of the local road network
- Relieve capacity constraints elsewhere on the network
- Provide greater route choice
- Attract business investment and high skilled employees
City Deal funded link road will benefit thousands
- Total Project Cost: £1.5m
- City Deal Awarded: £1.5m
- Delivery Partner: Oxfordshire County Council
- Project Status: Completed
The development of an integrated programme to increase the number of young people taking up apprenticeships, with a particular focus on courses that will support Oxford and Oxfordshire's growth sectors:
- Advanced engineering
- Manufacturing
- Space technology
- Biosciences
- Total Project Cost: £11.2m
- City Deal Awarded: £4.2m
- Delivery Partner: The University of Oxford
- Project Status: Completed
A new multi-use building located a Begbroke Science Park that will help science SMEs take their projects to market and provide facilities for researchers from the University developing new innovative products and technologies.
The Begbroke Innovation Accelerator will meet the increasing demand for adaptable and flexible space, offering an environment that will nurture small innovative businesses working across various disciplines such as automotive, nuclear materials, advanced materials, robotics, nano-medicine, pharmaceuticals, motorsport and supercomputing.
The City Deal programme includes the construction of three additional Oxfordshire incubator centres: Harwell, Culham and the Oxford Bio-escalator in Headington.
Project impacts:
- Attract investment from global companies, boosting local growth
- 2,200m2 mixed-use flexible space for offices and wet/dry laboratories
- Further establish Oxfordshire as a centre for high-tech production
- Total Project Cost: £10.9m
- City Deal Awarded: £5m
- Delivery Partner: Oxfordshire County Council
- Project Status: Completed
New north-facing slip roads better connecting the A34 with one of Oxfordshire's most important employment areas.
A projected increase in jobs and traffic in the Science Vale area, which includes an additional 20,000 new homes and 20,000 permanent jobs expected by 2031, means that these new slip roads will play a vital part in ensuring that the local road infrastructure meets the demands of the future.
Harwell Campus, which is set to see a significant increase in jobs on site, will benefit from an improved access to its site from the A34.
Project impacts:
- Enhance accessibility of the Science Vale Enterprise Zone
- Provide an easier route to the A34 for local residents
- Boost job creation by making the area more attractive to investors
- Create better and more reliable journeys
- Total Project Cost: £12.5m
- City Deal Awarded: £5m
- Delivery Partner: Oxfordshire County Council
- Project Status: Completed
The busy interchange on the A34 near Didcot has been converted into a hamburger roundabout with a lane through the middle to speed up traffic heading north to Oxford and the M40.
Tens of thousands of drivers use the Milton Interchange every day, with congestion on the A34 affecting drivers around the county. This work is projected to boost the capacity of the interchange by 20% and improve traffic flow.
This will lead to improvements in job creation by making the area more attractive to investors.
Project impacts:
- Enhance accessibility to Milton Park, Didcot and the Science Vale Enterprise Zone
- Provide an easier route to the A34 for local residents
- Boost job creation by making the area more attractive to investors
- Create better and more reliable journeys
- Total Project Cost: £21m
- City Deal Awarded: £11m
- Delivery Partner: University of Oxford
- Project Status: Completed – officially opened June 2019
A newly-built innovation centre in Oxford - located on Old Road Campus in Headington - has been designed with growing, start-up businesses in mind, particularly those working in the life sciences sector.
It will allow co-location with hospital/research facilities and staff (including clinicians, patients and researchers) and the sharing of equipment that allows 'adjacent innovation' to develop at scale. It will also support single teams to manage multiple biotech companies which will significantly reduce management costs ('burn rate').
A new breed of incubator, the Oxford BioEscalator aims to be a 'hub for new and developing life sciences innovation' with start-up and emerging businesses being able to rent different levels of space to support their own growth and research work – whether it's one bench in an innovation lab, through to hiring an entire lab space.
The new building also hopes to support 'early-stage innovation' that has the potential to make a significant impact in healthcare, both nationally and more globally.
The City Deal programme includes the construction of three additional Oxfordshire incubator centres: Begbroke Innovation Accelerator, Culham RACE Centre and Harwell Quad One.
Project impacts:
- New office and lab space to support innovative R&D in Oxfordshire
- Increase attractiveness of the area for new science and technology businesses, boosting local growth
- Further establish Oxfordshire as a centre for high-tech innovation
- Total Project Cost: £17.8m
- City Deal Awarded: £7.3m
- Delivery Partner: Oxfordshire County Council
- Project Status: Cutteslowe and Wolvercote works completed.
This project relates to schemes supporting the regeneration of Oxford's Northern Gateway and the A40 approaches to Oxford. This package of measures will relieve congestion and deliver growth at the Northern Gateway development site.
Project impacts:
- Reduced congestion at Cutteslowe and Wolvercote roundabouts
- Improved traffic flow north of the city
Update: Following a review of the A40-A44 Link Road project, Oxfordshire County Council has concluded that the scheme requires a review against wider measures to improve transport connectivity across north Oxford. The decision has therefore been taken to pause development of the link road project. Our board has therefore approved funding previously identified to assist delivery of the link road to be directed towards improvements at Oxford station, which itself will support rail development around north Oxford.
The A40-A44 link road will now form part of a strategic review to inform the evolution of the county councils Local Transport and Connectivity Plan (LTCP). This will ensure that the project is considered in the context of growing demands on the highway network and the significant Local Growth Fund and Housing Infrastructure Fund proposals across the A44, A40 and wider north Oxford area. It will also allow the scheme to be considered in the context of investment and transformation of the North Cotswold Rail Line, which is being promoted by a cross authority partnership including both the county council and OxLEP.
Delivery of the link road project would require further funding. This would be sought as and when a case is made which demonstrates that the scheme positively benefits and enhances additional growth demands on the transport network and is in line with objectives of the emerging Local Transport and Connectivity Plan.
Our board has agreed with Oxfordshire County Council that funding should be directed to the Oxford Station project, to help deliver a programme of much-needed works. The Oxford Station project has been outlined as the number one priority within the Oxfordshire Infrastructure Strategy (OXIS). Funding allocated to Oxford Station will complement a wider plan for significant enhancements to the rail network at Oxford Station, including additional track and platform capacity, together with transport and connectivity improvements to Botley Road. Work will be delivered by Network Rail in conjunction with other key stakeholders.
- Total Project Cost: £23.5m
- City Deal Awarded: £8.7m
- Delivery Partner: Oxfordshire County Council
- Project Status: Kennington roundabout completed. Remaining projects ongoing.
The project will create a fully integrated public transport system that connects the area's centres of innovation and economic growth.
People using the Oxford Science Transit will be able to hop on and off high-frequency bus and rail services using "smart" tickets, planning their journeys sing real-time information and updates.
The City Deal will enable the first phase of the Science Transit by focusing on the major pinch points in the network:
- The A34 between Abingdon and South Oxford
- The access into Oxford from the A34, along the Oxford Southern Bypass
Project impacts:
- Improve traffic flow in the south of Oxfordshire
- Total Project Cost: £2m
- City Deal Awarded: £2m
- Delivery Partner: OxLEP
- Project Status: Completed
A tailored business support programme to support both high-growth tech start-ups and local SMEs in Oxfordshire.
The programme brought together a network of existing provision, amplified and enhanced existing services to businesses, and plugged gaps with bespoke programmes in order to promote innovation-based growth.
The programme provided:
- Innovation Support Grants (average £25k)
- Innovation Support Vouchers (average £3k)
- Free access to technical expertise: sector-specific 'Network Navigators'
- Free start-up workshops
Phase 2 of our ISfB programme, funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), is live.
Project impacts:
- 234.5 new jobs
- 8 jobs safeguarded
- 297 businesses assisted
- 6,881 businesses engaged
- £1.24m grants awarded
£300k vouchers awarded
- Nearly £10m private match funding
- Total Project Cost: £14.1m
- City Deal Awarded: £7m
- Delivery Partner: STFC
- Project Status: Completed
A striking landmark building on the Harwell campus, and is the first opportunity to lease brand new, Grade A space within the major new Quad development.
Offering office and laboratory space, plus a range of staff amenities, Quad One is in a prominent location at the heart of the UK's leading science and innovation campus.
The suites at Quad One allow for occupier's bespoke fit-out, with office and laboratory space from 28m2 to 1,161m2 available.
The City Deal programme includes the construction of three additional Oxfordshire incubator centres: Begbroke Innovation Accelerator, Culham RACE Centre and the Oxford Bio-escalator in Headington.
Project impacts:
- New office and lab space to support innovative R&D in Oxfordshire
- Increase attractiveness of the area for new science and technology businesses, boosting local growth
- Further establish Oxfordshire as a centre for high-tech innovation
- Total Project Cost: £21.2m
- City Deal Awarded: £7.8m
- Delivery Partner: UKAEA
- Project Status: Completed
A new facility focussed on remote handling, which will have applications across a number of different industries where there are extreme environments.
The facility will enable RACE to conduct R&D into many applications of remote handling and robotic technology, already used to great effect at the JET fusion facility at Culham. It will be a key centre for implementing the Government's Robotics and Autonomous Systems strategy, which aims to equip the UK to compete in this emerging global industry.
It will give access to test facilities, robotic equipment and expertise to SMEs, multinationals, research laboratories and academia from areas such as space applications, deep sea exploration, underground, fusion research and the advanced nuclear fission industry.
The City Deal programme includes the construction of three additional Oxfordshire incubator centres: Begbroke Innovation Accelerator, Harwell Quad One and the Oxford Bio-escalator in Headington.
Project impacts:
- Improved R&D facilities to support Oxfordshire's Robotics and Autonomous Systems sector
- Further establish Oxfordshire as a centre for Robotics and Autonomous Systems
