A MAJOR investment designed to deliver affordable housing is unlikely to help in Oxford, campaigners have said.

Chancellor Philip Hammond announced £1.4bn for 'housing that supports a wide range of need' and claimed it would deliver 40,000 affordable homes.

But Oxford Housing Crisis, which held a protest outside the Randolph Hotel against high rents earlier this month, said the measure would not work.

Spokeswoman Carol Stavris said: "Even if this was genuinely new money it would represent only a small fraction of the number of homes needed.

"The Government's 'market' definition of affordability bears no relation to Oxford's unaffordability crisis in terms of housing costs relative to incomes."

The group also criticised plans to extend the Right to Buy scheme to housing association tenants.

Yesterday Mr Hammond told Parliament: "The challenge of delivering the housing we so desperately need in the places where it is currently least affordable is not a new one.

"But the effect of unaffordable housing on our nation's productivity makes it an urgent one."

Oxford City Council leader Bob Price said a lack of funds for affordable housing was not the issue here.

He said: "The issue is having the land available to deliver housing and the capacity in the building industry to create those homes.

"The money is welcome but it will not be a quick and easy solution in this part of the country or in many other parts."