The Minister of State, Cabinet Office (Greg Clark)
Following the successful completion of the first wave of city deals in July 2012, with the “core cities” the Government committed to work with a further 20 cities and their wider areas to negotiate a second wave of city deals in October 2012.
I can today inform the House that the Government and university, business and civic leaders in Oxford and Oxfordshire have reached agreement on a city deal.
The Oxford and Oxfordshire city deal will support innovation by investing in a network of innovation centres at Hanwell, Culham, Begbroke and the Oxford Bio Escalator.
It will invest in three sets of transport projects to ease congestion and make commuting times shorter, including access improvements to the Science Vale Oxford enterprise zone, the A40 approach to Oxford and improved transit on the A34.
A business support network will be established in Oxfordshire to assist growing businesses. A total of 500 additional apprenticeships will be created aimed at supplying the technical skills these businesses need.