The Oxford-Cambridge Arc, shelved by Boris Johnson, has been revived by Rishi Sunak.
The government has backed a new regional partnership board to help drive investment into the UK equivalent of Silicon Valley, centred around the two world-class universities of Oxford and Cambridge.
The decision comes a year after a top-down strategic plan for the Arc was shelved by Johnson in order to prioritise levelling up spending in the north of England.
The new board, while falling far short of the original plan, which envisaged the creation of up to 1m extra homes and 700,000 jobs, has nonetheless been welcomed by local government and technology entrepreneurs.
Levelling up secretary Michael Gove said in a letter to the interim chair of the new board that the government would commit £2.5m to the project.
