The number of new houses allocated to Oxford by Oxfordshire County Council in the structure plan is ludicrously small.

Five hundred new homes a year nowhere near meets the demand for housing in our city.

Oxford needs new homes of all kinds --high cost, low cost and key workers' houses.

Only about a fifth of the affordable homes we need are being built, mainly by housing associations.

The result is that even people on average incomes cannot afford to set up home in the city.

Instead, Oxford people move out to Didcot, Witney and Bicester and commute, adding to congestion on our roads.

People want to live and work in Oxford because it is a beautiful city and there are plenty of jobs.

To artificially price people out of Oxford will drive up house prices.

Increasingly, it will mean only the very wealthy can afford to live here.

Labour will give priority to low-cost homes in Oxford using brownfield and some greenfield sites.

If Oxford does not grow as a city, we will soon become a quaint village overwhelmed by places like Swindon and Milton Keynes.

JOHN TANNER (Cllr)

Oxford City Council