A project to build a new life science campus in Stevenage – one of the largest in Europe creating 5,000 jobs – has taken a giant leap forward.

Visiting the day before his resignation as Chancellor of the Exchequer sparked the end of Boris Johnson's premiership, Rishi Sunak was in the town for the announcement which he said will 'cement our status as a global leader in life sciences'.

GlaxoSmithKline announced plans for a 33-acre campus next to its global research and development centre last year. The site is already home to two additional clusters with dozens of start-up life science companies leading research into diseases.

Now UBS Asset Management has formed a joint venture with property developer Reef Group to take the development forward. The new campus is expected to deliver up to £900m of new investment and create 1.4m square feet of laboratory and office facilities for new companies.