Business leaders in Oxfordshire insist that the new enterprise zone scheduled to rise from a brownfield site in southern Oxfordshire and to play host to the creation of 8,400 new jobs by April 2015, is a completely different animal from those zones created in the 1980s by Mrs Thatcher.

Chairman of the Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), Dr Martin Dare-Edwards, who spearheaded the successful bid for an enterprise zone in the county said: “Then was then and now is now. Then the zones were mainly set up in areas that could be described as deprived, with a view to turning them into something better than that.

“Now, here in Oxfordshire, the idea is to build on success and make the UK as a whole more competitive by creating jobs in the private sector in an area where there is a real prospect for growth.”

The Science Vale UK Enterprise Zone will provide 200,000 sqaure metres of office or laboratory space on 92 hectares of land already owned by two of Britain’s biggest science and research parks: Harwell Oxford and Milton Park. If all goes to plan, 8,400 jobs will be created there.

The area is, of course, already host to an almost unparalleled concentration of science and technology activity and enterprise, at the heart of which lie some of the world’s most significant science and research facilities.

Now, in a bid to tempt more such hi-tech companies to the area, the enterprise zone will offer the come-on of a five-year holiday from business rates up to a cap of £275,000 (or £55,000 a year).

On top of that, any income that is gained from business rates (after the five-year period, for instance, or from larger companies) will be ploughed back into the local economy (rather than going off to central government, as at present).

In addition the zone will shortcut planning processes, greatly reducing building times and costs for both incoming businesses and the local authority involved, namely the Vale of White Horse.

Anna Robinson, strategic director at the Vale of White Horse with special responsibility for Vale Science UK said: “All of the enterprise zone is in our district council area.

“However, we are in partnership with South Oxfordshire District Council because much of the housing needed for these workers will be in that district.

“We are also in partnership with the county council in order to install extra infrastructure.”

She added: “There are three elements to baking this cake: jobs, housing and infrastructure.”

Everyone agrees that the selection of Science Vale UK as one of the 10 zones given the green light in August was a feather in the cap for the Oxfordshire LEP — itself only created earlier this year.

But in some ways the hard work of making the potential economic gain become reality is only beginning now.

James Dipple, managing director of Milton Park, which owns 28 hectares of the new zone, said: “It’s a tall order all right, to be open for business by April 1 next year and up and running by 2015 — but we are fairly confident we can deliver.”

He said that there was already informal interest from potential occupiers of the zone, but added that it was too early to say what sort of mixture of large, medium, small, and start-up businesses should be expected.

He added: “Reality will dictate that. But we are ahead of the game as regards investment in infrastructure. And it is not just physical infrastructure that will benefit from the enterprise zone. Government support is promised to ensure that superfast broadband is rolled out here.”

However, he added that “emerging detail” was still needed to clarify exactly how promised benefits would work in practice. For example, no one knows yet exactly how business rate money will be kept in the local economy.

That detail is expected to be supplied when the Government’s Localism Bill receives royal assent in December.

In the meantime the LEP and the directors of Milton and Harwell business parks are working with the Vale of White Horse on an implementation plan — which will in turn lead to the introduction of a local development order (LDO) designed to fast-track planning and to keep businesses in the area.

Over at Harwell Oxford, owner of the lion’s share of enterprise zone land (at 64 hectares), director Dr Sally Ann Forsyth said: “It’s a tight timeline but it’s all do-able. There will be a period of consultation on the LDO in February.

“Oxfordshire has a lot to shout about and it’s great that the Government has recognised that. We deserve it.”

Criticism of the concept of enterprise zones in the past has centred on suspicions that they boost business in the short term, but then things return to normal.

But Dr Forsyth reckons that the benefits envisaged in the Localism Bill will ensure that this time around, the gains will mean ongoing advantages.

She added: “Obviously we are all in the hands of the overall economy; but all we can do is to make ourselves attractive.

“I think that the simplified planning will be a huge attraction to businesses because companies are always in a rush and they all want a greater level of certainty.”

However she added that the old story of like attracting like still holds true.

She said that just as customers have long been attracted to Saville Row to buy top-quality suits — because they knew there are a lot of tailors there — so businesses will be attracted to Science Vale because other similar businesses are already there.

She said: “Businesses work better in clusters.”

Back at the Oxfordshire LEP, a voluntary body made up of representatives from business, academia and the wider public sector, Dr Dare-Edwards said: “Enterprise zones are designed to boost the private sector at a time when job losses are expected in the public sector.

“And the truth is that Oxfordshire is unlike many other counties in the South-East in that we have a higher proportion of public employees here. We made that point in our bid for the enterprise zone.”