Strong, fair economy - Our Strategy
- Oxford plays a significant role in some of the world's most important economic sectors and technologies
- Our aim is to support sustainable economic development, ensuring that our city remains an attractive and thriving place for everyone, whether they live, work, or visit here
- Growth is already underway in many local businesses, both small and large, as well as new and established ones
- Our challenge and opportunity lie in strategically harnessing this growth for the benefit of all
Strengths – world leading science research base, particularly in medical science; innovation particularly in tackling climate change; highly educated population
Challenges – ensuring valuable jobs for the 40% non-graduate workforce; creating the space for entrepreneurial businesses
Opportunities – Large regeneration projects; international investment in medical and biotech research; our own local spending power
Priorities:
- Secure, fairly paid, local jobs for Oxford’s residents and access to skills and reskilling training
- Using Oxford’s unique strengths in a global economy to attract high quality investment
- Supporting development to boost economic activity and deliver benefits for all
| Commitment | Deliver ourselves | In partnership | influence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Harness Oxford’s economic growth from science and innovation to create valuable local jobs and make sure everyone in the city has better opportunities | x | x | x |
| Focus efforts on the needs of the most disadvantaged places, through local economic development and connecting to citywide opportunities and skills training | x | x | |
| Increase the number of people paid the Oxford Living Wage to improve the minimum standard of living | x | x | |
| Use Council spending, and work with major employers (anchor institutions) and trade unions to support local businesses, strengthen local supply chains and provide wider social value such as apprenticeships or better public spaces | x | x | |
| Help local people to access training, education and apprenticeships so they can make the most of new job opportunities being created in the city | x | x | |
| Enable high quality and sustainable business development on land already designated for employment, with a focus on supporting life sciences, technology, low carbon and knowledge driven businesses | x | x | |
| Maximise the local benefit from investment in a new station for Oxford, and continue to work for the Cowley Branch line extension | x | x | x |
| Support all forms of businesses, including start-ups and small and medium sized businesses, and help them grow by signposting training and resources and using vacant business space and Council-owned markets | x | x |
Measuring progress
In order to measure progress we will report annually on three key measures. These will be finalised in a separate report to follow in the next few weeks.
