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South East1.174 Housing: Housing remains a significant challenge across the South East. In 2014, thegovernment created an Urban Development Corporation (UDC) to drive forward developmentof a new garden city at Ebbsfleet. The government is announcing the Board membersfor the UDC, and expects it to be up and running from April 2015. The UDC will nowproduce a business plan ahead of the next spending review. The government will alsoprovide capacity funding to support Bicester’s ambition to become a garden town,including assessing the potential for recoverable government investment, subject toa business case.1.175 Innovation: Building on the science strengths in the South East is crucial to maintainingstrong economic growth. The government will extend the Oxford Science Vale EnterpriseZone for advanced energy, space and satellite science, and will extend Discovery ParkEnterprise Zone, subject to a business case, allowing it to expand its operations in life sciencesand environmental technologies.Strengthening the UK’s skills and innovation baseEducation and skills1.176 The government has implemented a package of measures to improve access totraining and higher education. Over 2 million people have started apprenticeships during thisParliament, and in the academic year 2014-15 the highest ever number of young students andstudents from disadvantaged backgrounds applied to, and were accepted into, university. 89 Theyouth Claimant Count more than halved between May 2010 and January 2015. 90 At AutumnStatement 2014 the government announced that it would increase the financial support forstudents on postgraduate taught courses with a new income-contingent loan offer.PhD funding1.177 The UK excels both in terms of volume and quality of research. The government hassupported researchers by ring-fencing the science budget and strengthening partnerships withindustry, for example through Doctoral Training Centres. However, demand for individuals withdoctorates is outstripping supply, both in the UK and internationally. Despite increases in theproportion of the labour market with a PhD in the US and UK, wage differentials with thosewhose highest qualification is an undergraduate degree have risen substantially. 911.178 In addition, the market for postgraduate skills is becoming more internationallycompetitive. Countries such as the US and China are competing more for top researchers andhave increased PhD student numbers in recent years, whereas in the UK PhD enrolment hasremained relatively flat. 921.179 The government will introduce a package of measures to broaden andstrengthen support for postgraduate researchers (including both masters and PhDs).This additional support will focus on seizing new opportunities in postgraduate research andbuild on partnerships with industry, charities, academies and individual members of society. Itwill include:89‘FE Data Library: Apprenticeships - Apprenticeships by quarter: starts and achievements 2002-02 to 2012-13,Skills Funding Agency and Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, February 2015; and FE Data Library:Apprenticeships - Breakdown by geography, equality, diversity and sector subject area: starts 2002/03 to 2014/15,Skills Funding Agency and Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, February 2015. ‘End of Cycle Report 2014’,UCAS, December 201490Labour Market Statistics, ONS, February 2015. Further detail can be found in ‘Budget 2015 Data Sources’.91‘Rising Wage Inequality and Postgraduate Education’, Lindley, J., and Machin, S., Centre for Economic PerformanceDiscussion Paper No1075, September 201192‘International Comparative Performance of the UK Research Base’, prepared by Elsevier for the Department forBusiness, Innovation and Skills, 201348 Budget 2015