Voice Of The Region: Oxfordshire Turbocharged technology sector takes off

2021-05-14

With more than £1.25bn of external funding since the start of 2020, the technology sector in Oxfordshire is entering a golden age which has seen it pull ahead of old rivals in Cambridgeshire, according to VSL & Partners director Richard Venables. The company comfortably leads the Oxfordshire On Demand Radius Rankings with almost 300,000 sq ft of transacted space so far this year. More than a third of this was down to lettings to Arrival, a company that makes electric commercial vehicles and whose d...

The company comfortably leads the Oxfordshire On Demand Radius Rankings with almost 300,000 sq ft of transacted space so far this year. More than a third of this was down to lettings to Arrival, a company that makes electric commercial vehicles and whose decision to locate in Bicester was influenced heavily by its proximity to Oxford University.

And Arrival is not alone; according to Venables around 20 companies a year are spinning out of the University in sectors ranging from transport to life sciences, AI, engineering and, famously, vaccine research.

This has pushed up rental values in the county and also attracted inevitable interest from investors, where yields are now at record lows.

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