Legal & General has announced that it has formed a 50:50 partnership with Oxford University to develop homes for University staff and students, together with science and innovation districts in and around Oxford. As funding and development partner for the University, Legal & General’s Future Cities business will provide up to GBP 4 billion (US$ 5.07 billion) of funding over the next ten years from Legal & General’s shareholder, annuity and LGIM-managed funds.

The funding will, subject to planning, deliver a series of projects for the University, including the development of new homes for University staff and students, and the creation of science and innovation districts, with modern workspace and research facilities.

With its world-class university, Oxford is one of the UK’s fastest growing cities and competes among the top technology clusters in the world. The city, however, lacks affordable residential and commercial space that is essential for the University to continue to attract research graduates, and support spin-out and scale-up businesses.  Accelerating Oxford’s potential by addressing these challenges is the fundamental ambition of the Partnership.

The Centre for Cities’ 2016 “Fast Growth Cities” report sites Oxford as one of the UK’s most successful cities, performing strongly on a range of economic indicators, including productivity and share of knowledge-based jobs, and that this positions it strongly to continue to grow in the future. Oxford’s population grew by 11.6% from 2004 to 2014, making it the 12th fastest growing city in the UK.