Oxford council faces backlash over new housing plans

Oxford’s four neighbouring districts have already agreed to receive thousands of new homes to help meet the city's housing needs.

But the city council will now ask Cherwell, West Oxfordshire, South Oxfordshire, and Vale of White Horse district councils to accommodate hundreds more.

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The authority admitted that it was a “big ask”.

But the request has been met with widespread opposition from council leaders and MPs who claimed that housing should remain within the city.

Layla Moran, MP for Oxford West and Abingdon

The decision was criticised by both Layla Moran, MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, and David Johnston, MP for Wantage.

Ms Moran said: "Oxford City Council repeatedly decides to use sites in the city for retail and employment rather than housing, and then claims that it can't deliver the housing the city so desperately needs.

"If the city council genuinely believes that these homes are needed, they should use all sites that become available for development to provide them.

“Neighbouring districts are already obliged to build thousands of homes that the city council claims it doesn't have room for, adding to the pressure on the already overcrowded transport network.

"The city council should put its money where its mouth is.”

She pointed to the Oxpens development near Oxford Train Station as a site where more housing could be built.

While the city council and Nuffield College are looking to build hundreds of houses on the site, they have also planned for a new hotel, office space, ecological gardens, and an amphitheatre.

Ms Moran argued the site should be used entirely for housing.

The city council’s planning chief Louise Upton (Image: Contribution)

The city council’s planning chief Louise Upton defended the Oxpens development, and said a balance was needed between housing and employment.

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She told the Oxford Mail: “I’d like to emphasise how hard we have looked within the city for available sites.

"We have talked to almost every landowner there is.”

The city council’s request comes after new figures revealed that more than 26,000 homes are needed in Oxford by 2040.

The city only has the capacity for around 9,500 of these.

It means the authority will ask its neighbouring districts to accommodate 2,528 of these homes as part of its draft local plan 2040.

It comes on top of the 14,300 homes that the districts have already agreed.

South Oxfordshire District Council has agreed to receive houses for Oxford at its developments in Bayswater Brook, Grenoble Road, and Northfield, but the leader of the authority refused to accept that any more homes were needed.

David Rouane, leader of South Oxfordshire District Council (Image: Contributed)

David Roaune said: “This would add to the thousands of homes they have already exported to other parts of Oxfordshire as part of the current local plans.

“We believe this scale of housing development simply isn’t needed and we want the city council to engage more effectively with the districts to properly address our concerns.

“We’ve had enough of the city council treating our rural districts as the solution to cover their supposed unmet housing needs and will continue to argue against their poor and unjustified choices.”

Bethia Thomas, leader of Vale of White Horse District Council, added that neighbouring authorities were being expected to “shoulder the burden.”

She said the city council had overinflated the number of houses it requires by disregarding the government’s standard method to calculate housing need.

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The city council has claimed that the government method is “wrong” and “outdated."

The authority said its housing density is generally double that of its neighbouring districts and that it made the best use of its land.

Ms Upton, who is cabinet member for planning and healthier communities, said she could empathise with the concerns of the neighbouring districts.

“Of course, it’s difficult, They’re trying to anticipate their own growth of population so it's a big ask from us,” she said.

“We’ve worked hard to maximise the capacity for building those new homes within our city.”

But the councillor warned that Oxford had built up to its boundaries.

She said the city council could only build out - rather than up - because it had a "duty to protect the beautiful dreaming spires landscape and the views that are part of our heritage."

“We’re not going to stick high rise flats in the middle of Christ Church Meadow," she added.

But asked why the city council had agreed for four apartment blocks of 210 flats to be built in Blackbird Leys, Ms Upton said: “The views of Blackbird Leys are not part of our heritage.”

Oxford’s draft local plan 2040 will go out for public consultation in October.

The city council will ask district councils to densify existing housing sites, rather than allocate new ones for development.

It has not allocated any new sites for employment in the plan.