England's Economic Heartland

Area covered

Bedford, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Central Bedfordshire, Luton, Hertfordshire, Milton Keynes, Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire, Peterborough and Swindon

Leadership Team

(which meets occasionally to discuss issues wider than transport)

Bedford Borough Council, Buckinghamshire County Council, Cambridgeshire County Council, Central Bedfordshire Council, Luton Council, Hertfordshire County Council, Milton Keynes Council, North Northamptonshire Council, Oxfordshire County Council, Swindon Borough Council, West Northamptonshire Council and LEPs: Oxfordshire, South East Midlands, Buckinghamshire Thames Valley, Swindon and Wiltshire , Hertfordshire

Strategic Transport Forum

(the sub-national transport body)

Councils: Bedford Borough Council, Buckinghamshire County Council, Cambridgeshire County Council, Central Bedfordshire Council, Luton Council, Hertfordshire County Council, Milton Keynes Council, North Northamptonshire Council, Oxfordshire County Council, Peterborough City Council, Swindon Borough Council and West Northamptonshire Council

LEPs: Oxfordshire, South East Midlands, Buckinghamshire Thames Valley, Swindon and Wiltshire , Hertfordshire

Other partners: Oxfordshire Growth Board, Central Growth Board, Department for Transport, Highways England, Network Rail, England's Economic Heartland Bus Operator's Association*, Transport Systems Catapult

* Members of the bus operator's association are: Stagecoach, Arriva, Oxford Bus Company, Thames Travel, Carousel Buses, City Sightseeing (Oxford), Go South Coast, Centrebus, Grant Palmer, UNO bus.

Lead / hosting authority

Buckinghamshire County Council

Statutory Status

England's Economic Heartland (EEH) consulted on becoming a statutory body during the draft transport strategy consultation.

Transport Strategy

EEH adopted its transport strategy in February 2021 and is currently progressing 10 connectivity studies.

Our response to the consultation on the draft Transport Strategy can be found here.

Our response to the previous Outline Transport Strategy can be found here.

A summary of the key messages from the outline transport strategy consultation can be found in Annex 1 of the Strategic Transport Forum's Papers for 24 January 2020 (Agenda Item 3). The papers also contain proposals in Annex 2 for amending the vision and outcomes. The full engagement report gives the feedback under each question and other issues raised.

We also responded to the consultation on scoping report for the Integrated Sustainability Appraisal (ISA) which was used to inform EEH's draft Transport Strategy:

Planning Oxfordshire's Environment and Transport Sustainably (POETS) has also responded to the ISA scoping report consultation:

You can find out more information about the EEH on their website.