Oxford City Council approved the first draft of the Local Plan 2040 on 18 October, acknowledging that they can’t meet the housing demand of the next 17 years. The plan aims to tackle the climate crisis, build more affordable homes, and “make Oxford’s economy work for all residents”.
Following the Council’s approval, the Local Plan will go to public consultation between November and January, after which a final draft will be prepared for public inspection. The Local Plan could be adopted in the summer of 2025, making it the legal document that governs decision-making on all planning and development applications in Oxford, replacing the existing Oxford Local Plan 2036.
Investigations for the Plan identified a need for 26,400 homes in Oxford before 2040. However, the Plan only identifies 9,612 available sites for new homes within the city’s boundaries.
Oxford City Council has asked neighbouring districts to accommodate more than 2,500 of these homes, on top of the 14,300 homes that the districts have already agreed to.
The Local Plan includes new approaches to tackling housing issues in Oxford, including allowing homes to be built on all types of employment sites for the first time and continuing to limit student accommodation to the city centre, district centres (including Cowley Road, Summertown, and Headington) and land adjacent to existing University campuses.
This decision to ask neighbouring districts to take on thousands of extra homes has been criticised by local MPs including Layla Moran, who commented: “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.”
This is not the first cross-council issue over housing that arose in the drafting stage. The Plan was initially expected to accompany the Oxfordshire Plan 2050 but councils across Oxfordshire were unable to agree on how many houses would be built and where in the county.
Additionally, the Local Plan 2040 only allocates 40% of developments over 10 properties as affordable housing, compared to the 50% it previously set in Local Plan 2036.
The City Council’s Website states that this is because “residential use now has a lower land value than offices and lab space … Therefore, without this change it is very likely that developers would choose not to use land for housebuilding and there would be fewer affordable homes built in the future.”
The Plan also hopes to balance these housing goals with the council’s climate goals including requiring all new homes and businesses to be Carbon Zero by 2030.
Local Plan 2040 is the result of years of investigations as well as input from the local community with 1,730 Oxford residents’ and organisations’ comments having been considered as part of this draft.
