In the first of two articles, Robin Webber-Jones explores why skills and place in the Oxford to Cambridge Growth Corridor cannot be understood in isolation.
Robin sets out how regional economics and agglomeration shape talent pipelines, why the Corridor faces a distinctive “missing middle” in its labour market, and the risks to growth if housing, transport, lab space and training provision fail to keep pace.
The Oxford–Cambridge Growth Corridor has long been described as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to create a world-class innovation region, anchored by two of the globe’s most productive university cities and the scaleable dynamism of towns such as Bedford in between.
The Corridor’s promise has never been just about faster trains between ancient universities. It is about building a region where learning, working, and innovating reinforce each other across multiple places — where skills are grown locally, and places are shaped by the skills they cultivate.
Too often the headlines land on rail links, housing numbers, and lab space. But the engine room of the Corridor is not steel and concrete; it’s the interaction between skills and place. Unless we invest in both together — as one system — we risk undershooting the Arc’s scientific potential, deepening spatial inequalities, and blunting the UK’s global competitiveness.
Why place matters for skills (and vice versa)
Regional economics shows that productivity growth is uneven across space, and that agglomeration – the clustering of firms, researchers and skilled workers – creates self-reinforcing advantages. Skills are not something that can simply be “shipped in”; they emerge from the local ecosystems where people learn, work and collaborate.
As Iammarino, Rodríguez-Pose and Storper argue, widening regional divergence risks becoming a structural drag on Europe’s future prosperity. Their prescription is not generic human-capital policy but place-sensitive development — embedding skills strategies within regional innovation systems.
The Corridor exemplifies this logic. Its success rests on dense, research-intensive clusters – biotech, AI, quantum and advanced engineering – where world-class researchers, entrepreneurial managers, technicians and scale-up leaders work side by side. But if the system becomes congested – too little lab space, limited transport, unaffordable housing, and weak mid-tier skills pipelines – then the benefits of clustering unravel.
The Corridor’s distinctive skills challenge
Two truths define the skills landscape. First, the Corridor is home to some of the UK’s most productive, innovation-intensive places, long recognised by the National Infrastructure Commission as a national growth asset. Second, the labour market is starkly divided: at one end, global researchers and founders; at the other, persistent shortages of mid-tier skills such as lab technicians, regulatory specialists, production engineers and clinical trial coordinators.
Life sciences skills audits across the Arc repeatedly flag this “missing middle,” alongside fragmented pathways for upskilling and re-skilling adults already in work. This gap is not only a pipeline issue but a systems challenge. Without coordinated investment in housing, transport, labs and training capacity, the entire innovation ecosystem develops friction that slows growth.
As the National Infrastructure Commission originally stressed, linking transport, planning, housing and skills is essential to delivering the Corridor’s full potential. That principle remains as relevant today as when the Arc vision was first framed.
Robin Webber-Jones is Executive Director for Curriculum at The Bedford College Group and member of the Arc Universities Group Skills & Talent Steering Group. Robin has over 20 years’ leadership experience across FE, HE and skills, including senior roles at Derby, Sheffield and Stamford.
