Working together on county’s housing needs

At today’s Oxfordshire Growth Board meeting, five of Oxfordshire’s six councils (Cherwell, City, County Council, Vale of White Horse, West Oxfordshire) agreed to the recommendations made by senior officers from all six councils on how Oxford’s unmet housing need, assumed to be 15,000 homes, should be met across the county. South Oxfordshire District Council has yet to agree its figure. It was emphasised at the meeting that decisions on where in each district housing growth will go, is the responsibility for each Local Planning Authority to decide in their Local Plans.

Cllr Ian Hudspeth, Leader of Oxfordshire County Council and Chair of the Oxfordshire Growth Board, said: “The recommendations made to the Growth Board on housing apportionment was the result of years of hard work by all six councils in the county who have worked in partnership to develop a sustainable approach to meet the county’s future housing needs.

“I am disappointed that South Oxfordshire District Council was not in a position to support the recommendation. However, I am pleased that all other councils voted in support of the recommendations.”

The Memorandum of Co-operation was expanded to reiterate that the programme does not “identify, propose, recommend or seek to identify, propose or recommend any site or sites for additional housing within any district. Each Local Planning Authority will remain responsible for the allocation of housing sites within its own district and through its own Local Plan process.”

What is the Oxfordshire Growth Board?

The Oxfordshire Growth Board is a joint committee of the six councils of Oxfordshire, set up to facilitate and enable joint working on economic development, strategic planning and growth. It does this by:

• advising on matters of collective interest, to seek agreement on local priorities and influence relevant local, regional and national bodies

• overseeing the delivery of projects that the councils of Oxfordshire are seeking to deliver collaboratively in the fields of economic development and strategic planning and those agreed in the City Deal and Local Growth Deals that fall to the councils, working collaboratively, to deliver and has an overall responsibility to manage these programmes of work alongside the Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership (OxLEP).

The meetings are administered and hosted on a rota basis and currently Oxfordshire County Council is the hosting authority.

The leaders of all six councils sit on the Growth Board.

ENDS

Notes to editors

The following recommendations presented to the Growth Board at its meeting on September 26^th have been agreed by five of Oxfordshire’s six councils (Cherwell, City, County Council, Vale of White Horse, West Oxfordshire). South Oxfordshire District Council has yet to agree its figure.

1. Approve the apportionment of the agreed working figure for the unmet housing need for Oxford, in the interest of complying with the Duty to Co-operate.

2. Approve the attached Memorandum of Co-operation setting out the apportionment and timetable for delivery of the unmet housing need for Oxford, subject to the following addition as a new 3.6 to Section 3: 

3.6 The Programme does not identify, propose, recommend or seek to identify, propose or recommend any site or sites for additional housing within any district. Each Local Planning Authority (LPA) will remain responsible for the allocation of housing sites within its own district and through its own Local Plan process.

N.B In light of the vote, officers were authorised to make such minor editing changes to reflect that South Oxfordshire District Council will not be signing the Memorandum of Understanding.

3. Formally recommend the approved apportionment to each of the Oxfordshire Local Planning Authorities for consideration in the preparation of their Local Plans, in the interest of meeting the objectively assessed housing needs for Oxfordshire.

The recommended apportionment discussed today (September 26) was as follows:

The Oxfordshire Growth Board is a joint committee of the six councils of Oxfordshire, set up to facilitate and enable joint working on economic development, strategic planning and growth. It does this by:

• advising on matters of collective interest, to seek agreement on local priorities and influence relevant local, regional and national bodies

• overseeing the delivery of projects that the councils of Oxfordshire are seeking to deliver collaboratively in the fields of economic development and strategic planning and those agreed in the City Deal and Local Growth Deals that fall to the councils, working collaboratively, to deliver and has an overall responsibility to manage these programmes of work alongside the Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership (OxLEP).

The meetings are administered and hosted on a rota basis and currently Oxfordshire County Council is the hosting authority.

The Oxfordshire Strategic Housing Market Assessment (SHMA) was commissioned jointly by all the Oxfordshire district councils supported by Oxfordshire County Council and published in 2014. It was a technical study intended to help the Oxfordshire local planning authorities understand how many homes will be needed in the period 2011 – 2031. It also considers the housing needs of specific groups such as older people, minority groups and people with disabilities and what housing growth will be needed to support the economy.