The Government has announced funding of £12.8m for Swindon and Wiltshire under its Local Growth Deal. This money is for projects which start in 2015/16 and 2016/17.
It also announced £116.3m of possible future funding. 
Key projects to benefit from the first round of funding include:
- Swindon’s Eastern Villages infrastructure. A package of road and rail schemes to enable the construction of up to 8,000 new homes by 2026 in a major new urban extension to the east of Swindon.
- Swindon and Wiltshire Skills Brokerage. Funding for a new service offering training and employment opportunities for military service leavers and other employees.
- Improvements to the A429 at Malmesbury. Transport improvements to enable access to Dyson’s new research and development centre and technology campus, which will support more than 3,000 highly-skilled engineering research jobs.
- Local Sustainable Transport. A series of measures to encourage more walking, cycling and public transport use across Swindon.
- Porton Science Park. The first phase of a ‘bold’ new science park at Porton, including a new building for innovative businesses and infrastructure, such as roads, for the entire site, to help grow the emerging Swindon and Wiltshire life sciences cluster. This will create new jobs in science and engineering, and create exciting opportunities for innovative businesses.
Projects with “agreed provisional allocations” starting in 2016/17 and beyond:
- Swindon Rapid Transit. A rapid transit bus scheme to give faster access to Swindon town centre.
- Wichelstowe tunnel. Project to provide additional access to the Wichelstowe housing development, together with associated connecting infrastructure.
- Chippenham station hub. Redevelopment of Chippenham station including better parking and retail and a new railway crossing
- Dualling of the A350 Chippenham Bypass. Improvements to the section of the A350 north of Chippenham.
- Additional funding on top of Local Growth Fund of £250,000 to strengthen the Swindon & Wiltshire Growth Hub, coordinating and delivering an effective business support offer to Swindon and Wiltshire’s businesses.
- A £2.7m increase in the Housing Revenue Account borrowing limit for Wiltshire Council to help develop new affordable homes.
