Shockwaves have been felt across Oxford after planning inspectors recommended the withdrawal of the city's local plan.

The Planning Inspectorate informed Oxford City Council last week and its leader Susan Brown said she was 'alarmed and extremely disappointed' by the decision. 

All local authorities across the country have to create a local plan that goes out to public consultation multiple times before it's submitted to the Planning Inspectorate. 

A local plan sets out how many houses are needed and the amount of employment space. 

The Planning Inspectorate rejected the assessment that 1,322 homes a year are needed in total, with 841 of these needing to be built outside Oxford’s boundaries. 

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In their letter to the council, inspectors Martha Savage and Kevin Ward said: “Although there are previous agreements and commitments in place to accommodate some 14,300 homes in the other Oxfordshire authorities, these agreements stem from a different round of plan making with a different evidence base and deal with a different time period.

"From what we can see the council has made no attempt to discuss how and where the newly identified unmet need up to 2040 would be met. It has relied to a large extent on these previous agreements and commitments. 

“Unfortunately, for the above reasons, we do not consider that the council has engaged constructively, actively and on an ongoing basis in relation to the strategic matters of housing needs and unmet housing needs.”

People and groups have slammed the city council after the inspectors' findings. 

A statement from the Liberal Democrats on the council said: “Labour-run Oxford City Council’s planning policy has been found to be fatally flawed.

"They have failed to cooperate with their neighbouring councils, and that has thrown delivery of the housing we desperately need into disarray.

“Oxford Liberal Democrats call on the Labour administration to cooperate closely with all other councils in Oxfordshire to meet Oxford’s housing need, and to go further to meet our own need within the existing city boundary, particularly by putting housing ahead of yet more office space that threatens to send the cost of living even further through the roof.

“If Labour can’t learn to cooperate, they must step aside for an administration, or a leader, that can."

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David Henwood (Image: Contributed) David Henwood, who leads the Independent Oxford Alliance, said: “Following its examination of Oxford’s Local Plan, the Planning Inspectorate is so unhappy with it that they are requesting that Oxford City Council withdraw its Local Plan, rather than choose to receive the Inspectorate’s report which ‘would inevitably recommend that the Local Pan is not adopted and would involve additional time and cost’. 

“They have concluded that the city council has failed in its statutory duty to cooperate with adjacent district councils. 

“This is an embarrassing back-to-the-drawing-board moment for the city council, and one must ask how much money has been spent on developing this now worthless plan. 

“The IOA welcomes the Inspectorate’s effective scrutiny of the plan, and its insights into the inadequate process and flawed conclusions.”

Mr Henwood added: “Cllr Susan Brown has failed to communicate with neighbouring district councils effectively, and based policy on principle by putting the cart first. This approach has clearly failed.

"The failed Labour Oxford Local Plan will cost the tax payer thousands, Susan Brown should really consider her position and accept the responsibility and step down immediately.

“The implications of a failed Oxford Local Plan are huge, the IOA is demanding an immediate resignation of Cllr Susan Brown and an urgent review of the city’s housing policy along with better connectivity to improve traffic flows in line with the inspectorate's guidance.”

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Susan Brown (Image: Contributed) David Young, of campaign group Planning Oxfordshire's Environment and Transport Sustainably (POETS), said: “We are very pleased that the Planning Inspectorate has turned down the draft Oxford 2040 Local Plan recently submitted for public examination.

"For some years now the city has consistently been seeking to overstate forecast housing needs – yet at the same time prioritising land within the city for more employment in an overheated economy. 

“The result has placed heavy demands upon surrounding district councils – often on protected green belt land.

"The damaging consequences (from pressure on for instance, amenity, transport, and sewerage) of this dash for growth are only now beginning to be seen.”

Reacting to the Planning Inspectorate's decisions, council leader Ms Brown said: “We are alarmed and extremely disappointed by the recommendation to withdraw our Local Plan 2040 from public examination. 

“The planning inspectors have failed to grasp the seriousness of Oxford’s housing crisis and the number of new homes we need to tackle this crisis – and don’t appear to have heeded the clear message from government which requires all councils to up their housing delivery ambitions. 

“The logical outcome of the inspectors’ conclusions will be a delay to proactively planning for the homes we need. 

“The current standard method is not fit for purpose and flies in the face of the government’s policy intention to overhaul a broken national planning system and deliver 1.5 million homes."

She added: “Oxford City Council also disputes the finding it has not met the duty to cooperate. We have a longstanding history of working collaboratively with neighbouring councils and other stakeholders on planning issues affecting Oxfordshire - including during the preparation of this plan. 

“The duty to cooperate is not a duty to agree. Nor should it be a charter for those who object the loudest to be able to block the building of desperately needed homes.”