The Oxford Labour Club (OLC) has teamed up with the Oxford branch of the ‘Yes, In My Backyard’ Alliance (Oxford YIMBY) for a joint launch event. YIMBY is a campaign advocating for more high-quality, affordable homes with local branches across the country. The event, which will take place on 16th October, will be held at Trinity College and attended by both YIMBY representatives and MP Danny Beales. The launch marks OLC’s first collaboration with YIMBY.
The Co-Chairs of OLC told Cherwell: “This relaunch is about finding a new generation to pick up the call to build more homes and end the city’s housing shortage. That shortage affects both students and long-term residents, and it is only right that students use their voice to advocate for more homes for everyone.”
When asked how students in the OLC can contribute to YIMBY’s goals, the Co-Chairs told Cherwell they will “help set up a fully independent Oxford-based campaign”. The Co-Chairs explained that, for OLC, working toward an accessible Oxford “means supporting Oxford YIMBY’s campaign for a city where nobody has to be priced out”.
OLC’s involvement with YIMBY comes amid rising concerns about Oxford’s housing crisis. As of July 2025, the average home price in Oxford stands at £497,000 – nearly double the UK average of £270,000 – while average monthly private rents have reached £1,897, up 11.7% in the last year. Oxford University and Oxford Brookes University’s student populations add additional strain on the city’s housing market, with a combined 4,521 students living outside of university-provided accommodation as of the 2023/24 academic year.
Oxford YIMBY campaigns to address Oxford’s housing crisis by “building out”, expanding Oxford’s green belt – the protected land around the city designed to limit urban sprawl – outward to allow development along the city’s edges. The organisation also advocates for “building up”, which focuses on replacing terraces or detached houses with taller apartment blocks.
Currently, Oxford YIMBY supports three projects: the redevelopment of the North Oxford Golf Club site, the creation of 1,450 new homes in a new community called Bayswater Brook, and the development of land south of the Oxford Science Park.
While Oxford YIMBY and the wider YIMBY organisation are both unaffiliated with any political party, their goals align with the Labour Party’s aims to build more affordable housing. Speaking to Cherwell, the Co-Chairs of OLC explained that despite YIMBY being non-partisan, OLC “share their commitment to tackling the housing crisis, building more homes, and creating a housing system that works for students”.
Beales, who will attend the launch event, serves as a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Ending Homelessness and for Temporary Accommodation, which brings together parliamentarians to tackle homelessness and the housing crisis at the national level.
Through the joint launch event and continued collaboration with Oxford YIMBY, the Co-Chairs told Cherwell that OLC aims to seize the “opportunity to expand pro-housing outreach” and “be part of that change”.
YIMBY as a movement began in the San Francisco Bay Area in the 2010s as a response to the lack of affordable housing in the Bay Area. California YIMBY as the first political group was founded by tech executives such as Nat Friedman, the former CEO of GitHub.
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