IN A week of major traffic problems on the A34, a Government transport minister has promised investment in infrastructure to support growing businesses.

During a visit to space tech company Reaction Engines, John Hayes MP said the Government was committed to both supporting the expanding UK space industry and ensuring people can get to work ‘safely and reasonably quickly’.

Reaction Engines started with three people in 1990 and now employs more than 150, and is one of several rapidly expanding businesses at Culham's science centre.

A plan for 3,500 homes is proposed close to the centre, in part to support the growth in jobs, but residents have consistently raised fears that roads won’t be able to cope.

Just days before the minister’s visit, a crash on the A34 involving a large van, two cars and a caravan a few miles from the centre delayed traffic for hours.

And traffic queued again this morning following a four-vehicle crash near Abingdon.

Mr Hayes said the Government is investing in the right infrastructure to sit alongside the increase in housebuilding, but would not comment on the ongoing safety review for the A34.

He said: “When I was the roads minister I launched the biggest road investment plan for donkeys years across the whole of the UK.

“We are now looking at a range more schemes across the country.

“The Government knows that if it is going to make the communications necessary to allow these companies to develop, it has to have both the plans and the finance to back it and that is what we are doing.”

Mr Hayes added that many of the new jobs being created would be apprenticeships many of which go to local young people and therefore do not lead to an influx of people into the area.

The minister was shown around the engineering company, which is benefitting from £60m of Government funding to work on a prototype engine to pave the way for high speed air transport and commercial space flights.

Despite infrastructure problems and the challenges posed by Brexit, Mr Hayes predicted the business would continue to be successful.

He said: “This business is doing world-leading work, the technology I have been looking at is a new class of propulsion. It is groundbreaking work and it is happening here in Oxfordshire.

The minister is also overseeing a Space Industry Bill in parliament, but refused to predict when commercial space flights from the UK might be possible.