Oxfordshire Growth Board is holding an event this week for developers and registered providers of social housing to invite them to help deliver new affordable homes across the county supported by funding from the Housing and Growth Deal.

The event is being held at Didcot Civic Hall 09:30-14:30 on Thursday 18 October. Officers from all four District Councils and Oxford City Council will set out details of the three-year programme to deliver at least 1,320 additional affordable homes countywide.

Let’s Build Affordable Homes Oxfordshire Affordable Homes Prospectus

The Oxfordshire Growth Board has called for the government to provide more clarity on its proposals for the route of the Oxford to Cambridge Expressway in Oxfordshire.

The chair of the Growth Board, Cllr Jane Murphy, has written to the Minister for Transport and the project’s director at Highways England explaining how the lack of certainty will affect work the board is doing to help plan for effective and sustainable growth that enhances the quality of life in Oxfordshire.

“you can read copies of the letters here”

Letter to Secretary of State Letter to Highways England

The Secretary of State has provided Oxfordshire’s local authorities with a Written Ministerial Statement that confirms temporary bespoke arrangements that will offer protection against speculative planning applications during the three year period of development of the county-wide Joint Statutory Spatial Plan (JSSP).

Under the new arrangements, each of Oxfordshire’s five District Councils will be required to demonstrate that they have in place only a 3-year housing land supply instead of the usual 5-year supply required by national policy.

The Oxfordshire Growth Board has consulted stakeholders and the public on a proposal to provide Oxfordshire councils with greater protection from speculative housing development as they plan for the county’s future housing needs.

The consultation has now closed and the results of the consultation are published here

The strong support for the proposal to alter the Land Supply test applied to local planning authorities to allow us flexibility to deliver the Oxfordshire Joint Statutory Spatial Plan has resulted in Government’s agreement to the proposals . You can read about this in the Ministerial Statement here

The Growth Board welcomes the further work that South Oxfordshire District Council (SODC) is undertaking to reconsider sites for development in support of its Local Plan.

The Oxfordshire Growth Board has approved revised Terms of Reference to reflect the additional responsibilities it now carries to oversee delivery of the Oxfordshire Housing & Growth Deal. The new arrangements are centred on expanding the level of public accountability and transparency of the Growth Board and linking this back to the county’s six elected councils.

Over a quarter of the new funding, £60 million, will support affordable housing across the county to deliver more than 1,300 affordable homes – at least half of which will be for social rent – helping  first time buyers and local people looking to get a foot on the housing ladder.

As well as delivering the homes Oxfordshire greatly needs, the funding will provide £150 million for much needed transport infrastructure, such as bridges, roundabouts and roads, across the region.