Some of the county’s leading businesses – as well as members of the general public – gathered at Harwell Campus for the Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership’s annual review yesterday (25 September), reflecting on a ‘game-changing’ last 12 months for the county’s economy.
The event – which took place at the Satellite Applications Catapult – saw OxLEP update visitors on its current work and support programmes and also reflect on a year that saw developments such as the Housing and Growth Deal, as well as the Oxfordshire Local Industrial Strategy and the Oxford-Cambridge Corridor, emerge.
OxLEP also officially launched its annual report for 2017/18 and held a ‘market place’ event, where delegates found out more about its everyday work supporting economic growth.
Jeremy Long – Chair of OxLEP – and Nigel Tipple, the organisation’s chief executive, both gave key-note speeches which looked into economic themes including; record levels of foreign direct investment for Oxfordshire, new job creation, strong levels of central government funding and the county’s global ‘assets’.
Rob Panting – Communications Manager at OxLEP – said: “Engaging with our business community is vitally-important and our annual review was an opportunity for us to update businesses of all sizes – and the general public – of some of our achievements and the county’s economic achievements too.
“Together with our partners, we have now secured around £600million-worth of central government and European funds for the Oxfordshire economy since 2011 and supported the creation of around 43,000 new jobs between 2011/2012 and 2015/2016, representing just over 50% of a 2031 target of 85,600 new jobs.
“Over the next 12 months, we will continue to ‘take Oxfordshire’ to national and global audiences and demonstrate our track record of nurturing genuine innovation and taking it to a world stage.”
Download the annual review’s presentation pack
Download the annual report for 2017/18
Nigel Tipple will be taking part in a Twitter Q&A next Tuesday – 2 October – between 12.30pm and 1.30pm. Send your questions to: @OxfordshireLEP or @NigelCEO and add the hashtag #OxLEPquestions.
For more information on OxLEP’s next Q&A event – which takes place on 10 October at Witney Lakes Resort – go to the ‘events’ section.
