Research by Public First found that the OxCam supercluster region, which spans Cambridge, Milton Keynes and Oxford, has an almost unrivalled per capita performance – in patents, scientific publications, human capital, start-up quality.

However, its scale relative to other clusters is small, which means its regional and national ‘spillovers’ are also much smaller than they could be. Through a ground up model looking at key drivers of growth – including human capital, R&D and investment – the research found the region could add £78 billion of cumulative output by 2035. The research outlines policy levers that would allow this growth, including the Cowley Branch Line reopening and new policies to allow housing, lab space, and catalysts for more investment into the region.