A £1m shortfall in Government grant for the city council's housing department is jeopardising a gardening service for 700 elderly tenants.

On Monday, the Oxford Mail reported the council was planning to drop the scheme, which helps elderly council tenants with their gardens.

The service, which is paid for from the housing revenue account, costs £150,000 a year.

Cllr Jock Coats, a Liberal Democrat, said the authority had been told to expect a £1m cut in housing grants. The annual housing budget comes to about £40m.

He said the council needed to make cuts to stop the housing budget going into the red but it might not be necessary for the cuts in the new financial year to total £1m.

Cllr Coats said: "The housing revenue account looks set to lose £1m because of the way the Government is calculating our level of benefit subsidy. The gardening service costs £214 per garden, so it is an expensive product and perhaps there are ways of providing the service more cooperatively."

Another option is to close Wood Farm and Northway housing offices, which could save a further £200,000.

The proposed saving would not affect the council's main budget, which is separate from the housing revenue account.

Cllr Coats said 8,000 tenants paid for the service, with 700 people getting the benefit.

The public is now being consulted on the service's future.