Plans to create thousands of new homes and jobs in Oxfordshire have been backed by a £42m investment from the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA).

The HCA has approved the investment to help step up the pace of a 3,300-home urban extension at Great Western Park in Didcot, for which homebuilder Taylor Wimpey is leading a consortium of partners.

The funding will be used to provide essential road links around the site on the edge of the town, support the early release of land on the site, and enable the development of 2,586 new homes, a new district centre, three schools, a new university technical college and community and healthcare facilities. This will play an important role in supporting local plans to create 16,000 skilled jobs at Science Vale Oxford Enterprise Zone sites at nearby Harwell and Milton Park.

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It is anticipated that the investment from the HCA will accelerate the overall rate of housebuilding at Great Western Park from 180 to around 280 homes a year, increasing the number of jobs on the construction site from around 400 to approximately 650 at its peak. It will also help address the requirement for better road links and new and more affordable homes local partners say the area needs.

HCA Executive Director for the South and South West, Colin Molton, said: "This investment will play an absolutely critical role in unlocking the full potential of Great Western Park, which is an essential part of the area's growth ambitions.

"It will support plans to create 16,000 new jobs at the enterprise zone sites by providing homes, training and community facilities that will be needed. "And it will create and safeguard additional jobs on site while construction work continues. Encouraging progress has been made on this development and we look forward to building on this success in the months and years ahead."

(CD/JP)