"World class" science & tech set to boost Oxfordshire's local industrial strategy
Oxfordshire Local Industrial Strategy is ‘backed by business community’ and will ‘prioritise local need’.
Senior business bosses from some of the most exciting companies in the county will gather alongside key academics and civic leaders in central Oxford today for the launch of a "new and ambitious" economic growth strategy for Oxfordshire.
The Oxfordshire Local Industrial Strategy responds to the UK's Industrial Strategy, launched by Central Government in November 2017. It aims to support the national ambition to increase growth and productivity as well as creating more prosperous communities.
The county’s Local Industrial Strategy will be launched by the Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership (OxLEP) at its annual event, held at the Blavatnik School of Government in Oxford.
Working alongside around 300 organisations – as well as Central Government itself – OxLEP developed a strategy that aims to position the county as one of the world’s top-three ‘innovation ecosystems’ by 2040, led-by Oxfordshire’s global strengths in science and technology.
Five ‘foundations of productivity’ cited in the UK Industrial Strategy – namely ‘ideas’, ‘people’, ‘infrastructure’ ‘business environment’ and ‘places’ – have also been reflected in the Oxfordshire Local Industrial Strategy to help the county achieve this 2040 ambition.
The strategy also hopes to build-upon the county’s recent economic growth performance which – between 2012 and 2017 – has seen a total of 50,000 new jobs created in Oxfordshire, this alongside an average five-year business survival rate of 49.3 per cent for those born in 2011, more than five per cent above the UK average, according to the Office for National Statistics.
The county is also one of just three net contributors to the UK economy, with a current GVA of £23bn per year.
As a direct result of the Oxfordshire Local Industrial Strategy it is hoped that by 2040, not only will the county’s GVA be doubled to £46bn per year, but for every £1 invested in Oxfordshire, £4 will be returned to the UK economy.
More information on the Oxfordshire Local Industrial Strategy can be found via: www.oxfordshirelep.com/lis.
