OXFORD has become a 'notoriously divided' city, a tenants' group has claimed, with wildly varying house values pricing people out of many areas.

Properties in the city had an overall average price of £568,595 over the last year, but with stark differences between neighbourhoods.

The most extreme difference is between Jericho, with houses selling at an average price of £1,023,840, and Blackbird Leys, where the average was £270,898 for the past 12 months, according to HM Land Registry.

Tenant's union Acorn Oxford said the city's housing problem was reaching a 'tipping point' with families being priced out of the more sought after areas.

Alice Ayton, communications officer at Acorn Oxford, said: "Our city is notoriously divided, with a huge amount of wealth and resources hoarded in central and North Oxford, while communities in Blackbird Leys, Barton and Littlemore have been neglected. House prices are unaffordable wherever you live in Oxford, especially in relation to low wages.

"Our city is reaching a tipping point. Residents have been forced to endure the extremes of a failed experiment in housing.

"People are constantly forced to uproot and leave their families and neighbourhoods behind. It's clear that we urgently need social housing. As a prime example of how not to do housing, Oxford could be leading the way out of this mess."

Oxford City Council plans to build 11,000 new homes in the city over the next 15 years, as outlined in its Local Plan 2036.

As part of this, sites of 10 or more homes must include 40 per cent council housing and 10 per cent other types of affordable homes.

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), in 2020 the median house price in Oxford was £400,000 – 11.72 times median gross household earnings (£34,124) in the city.

For England as a whole, the median house price is 7.84 times median earnings.

Half (49.3 per cent) of homes in Oxford are now in the private rented sector, where the ONS reports a median private rent of £1,450 a month for a three-bedroom home. The equivalent amount for England as a whole is £800.

A city council spokesperson said: “We will play a part in directly delivering affordable homes through our housing company, Oxford City Housing Ltd (OCHL). In the next decade OCHL’s development programme, together with 354 homes being built at Barton Park, will see a total of 1,125 new council homes providing the genuinely affordable housing that Oxford needs.

“This programme will mark the first significant development of council housing in our city since the 1970s – a new generation of council homes."