Housing Strategy

There is an ongoing housing crisis in Oxford

Oxford is facing a housing crisis, with many people unable to afford to live in our city. Our city also has one of the highest levels of homelessness in Britain.

Population in Oxford:

• The population of Oxford is 149,100.  This population is very diverse.
• There are over 25,000 students studying in Oxford.
• 12.9% of the population come from black and minority ethnic backgrounds.
• The population is very young: 64.6% are aged under 40. Only 15% are aged over 60.
• There are 55,900 households in Oxford.

Homes (dwellings) in Oxford:

• There are 54,500 homes (dwellings) in Oxford. 70% of these are houses or bungalows and 30% are flats or other types of home.
• The level of owner occupation is relatively low in Oxford and the levels of private and social renting are high:

•  There are over 5000 Houses in Multiple Occupation  (shared homes) in Oxford.
• There are over 1000 homes in sheltered housing schemes for the elderly. 

Affordability of housing in Oxford:

• Average house prices have more than tripled over the last 10 years: 1997 - £98,576, 2007 - £339,404
• The average price for a typical first purchase is £220,000 to £250,000.
• This is up to 10 times the average income of a single income household (c. £25,000).
• Private rental costs are relatively high.  Average weekly rents in the city are often more than mortgage costs for a similar property outside the city.

Housing Needs and Homelessness in Oxford:

• There are over 4,600 households on the Council's housing waiting lists
• There are over 450 households living in temporary accommodation in Oxford.
• There are over 170 people living in hostels in the city.
• Two thirds of homeless persons are aged under 25.
• There are over 6,000 over-crowded households living in Oxford.
• Of 700 lettings made to social housing in 2006/07 only 151 were for homes with 3 or more bedrooms. 
• At a snapshot count in June 2008 11 rough sleepers were counted.

What is the Council doing to address the housing crisis? 

• Working with housing associations to build at least 250 new affordable homes a year.
• Over 600 new affordable homes have been built in the city between 2003/04 and 2007/08.
• Working jointly with housing associations to let homes quickly.
• Launched Choice Based Lettings giving people more choice of where they live.
• Working with voluntary sector organisations to provide a range of services to support homeless people (such as hostels, move-on accommodation and return to work and training schemes).

Housing Strategy 2008 - 2011

The Housing Strategy 2008- 2011 shows how we plan to make the most of the opportunities in Oxford for the next three years. In the longer term, we want to be more ambitious in closing the gap between housing need and supply and will use this plan period to work out how we can do this. The strategy can be dowloaded below:

The strategy takes a broad view of the full range of housing issues in Oxford, including homelessness and the Council's own housing stock. More detailed descriptions and plans for these aspects are set out in the documents below:

There are also two brief summary leaflets of the Housing Strategy and the Homelessness Strategy.

Strategic Housing Services Inspection

The Audit Commission has recently inspected the strategic housing services that Oxford City Council provides and they have assessed the Council as providing a 'good', two-star service that has excellent prospects for improvement. You can download the full report below.

Page last reviewed 7 Nov 2008