Council prepares to submit Local Plan

The Local Plan is used to judge all planning applications that come in to the Council. It is updated every five years and the Local Plan 2040 contains ambitious standards for net zero buildings, providing affordable homes, supporting local employment and enhancing Oxford’s built heritage. 

The Council received around 1,500 comments in response to its last round of public consultation - held between 10 November and 5 January - and has made some changes to the plan after analysing all feedback.  

Consultation responses will be published with the full suite of Local Plan documents. 

The Council believes it has struck a balance between the needs for housing, supporting economic growth, protecting Oxford’s environment and historic buildings, and improving residential amenities.  

Since consultation, the Council has carried out further work on its housing and employment land availability assessment (HELAA), which identifies sites suitable for building homes. This means more sites have been identified for development. 

A number of additional background papers have been produced to support the Local Plan 2040. These explain how the Council has calculated the number of new homes Oxford needs, clarification on the use of employment sites for housing and the council’s approach to reaching net zero carbon. 

The Council has also held further conversations with statutory agencies including Natural England, Historic England and Oxfordshire’s other councils on the comments they submitted. Statements of common ground setting out areas of agreement and disagreement where there is not complete consensus between the Council and consultees have been drafted.  

Next steps 

The Council intends to submit the Local Plan 2040 and supporting documents to the Planning Inspectorate on 28 March. The submission will include all 1,500 comments made in response to consultation. 

A public examination will then take place. If approved, the plan could be adopted next year. 

Comment 

“Our Local Plan 2040 aims to find the right balance to help us tackle the housing crisis and climate emergency, support our communities and residents and make Oxford a better place for everyone. We’ve made some clarifications to the plan after recent consultation and we think we’ve found the right equilibrium. 

”Our planning policy team are hard at work putting final touches to the Local Plan 2040 and we intend to send it to the Planning Inspectorate for examination on 28 March.” 

Councillor Louise Upton, Cabinet Member for Planning and Healthier Communities

Tackling the climate emergency   

The most significant change in the Local Plan 2040 is the focus on reducing carbon emissions and promoting nature recovery.   

The Zero Carbon Oxford Roadmap found around 60% of Oxford’s carbon emissions come from buildings, with residential buildings accounting for 29% of total emissions. Oxford has the goal of becoming a net zero carbon city by 2040 and decarbonising buildings is key to this.  

The existing Local Plan 2036 requires:  

• new residential developments to go 40% further than government targets now, rising to 50% after 2026, and zero carbon from 2030 

• overall, a 5% net gain in biodiversity, including requiring 10% of residential sites of 1.5 hectares or more to become new public open space 

• car-free developments where they are within a controlled parking zone, near regular bus routes and close to local shops  

The Local Plan 2040 aims to take this further by:  

• bringing forward the requirement for all new homes and businesses in Oxford to be zero carbon 

• requiring no fossil fuels to be directly used in the operation of new housing or commercial developments – for example, no gas for heating or cooking 

• increasing the biodiversity net gain of housing and business developments from 5% to 10% 

• requiring all major developments to plant more trees, hedges and other greenery to meet new minimum standards  

Any offsetting of carbon emissions to become net zero will only be allowed in exceptional circumstances, and then only through local offsetting schemes in Oxford or Oxfordshire.  

Tackling the housing crisis  

Oxford is the least affordable place to live in the UK, with average house prices over 12 times household earnings and more than 3,300 households on the council housing register.  

But Oxford has already built up to the edge of its boundaries and – constrained by the Green Belt and a large flood plain – has run out of large development sites to build new homes. 

The current Local Plan 2036 includes:  

• identifying land within the city’s boundaries to deliver 10,884 homes 

• intensifying new development on previously developed land 

• making it easier for large employers to build affordable housing for workers on their land 

• requiring developments of 10 or more homes to build at least 50% affordable homes 

• encouraging the conversion of poorly performing or poorly located employment sites to housing 

• protecting existing housing as much as possible, and disincentivising the loss of dwellings for other uses, such as short term lets 

• continuing to limit student accommodation to the city centre, district centres and land next to existing campuses  

In the Local Plan 2040, the affordable housing requirement on developments of 10 or more homes has been reduced to 40%. This is because global economic factors have made housebuilding more expensive and - due to the success of Oxford’s economy - residential use now has a lower land value than offices and lab space.  

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.  

However, the Council is continuing to prioritise new social housing. Within the 40% affordable housing required at larger developments, 32% must be new council homes, with the remaining 8% being other forms of affordable housing like shared ownership.  

This is significantly higher than requirements for new social housing in neighbouring districts.  

The Local Plan proposes building 9,612 new homes within Oxford by 2040. This is lower than the 10,884 new homes needed in the Local Plan 2036 because Oxford has successfully built 3,780 homes since it was adopted in 2020. Many of the large available sites in the city have been developed.  

An economy that works for everyone  

Oxford has one of the best performing economies and has one of the highest concentrations of knowledge-intensive businesses – for example, scientific research and high-tech industry – in the UK.  

The city’s economy is likely to continue to grow. The University of Oxford has created 205 spinout companies since 2011 – more than any other UK university – and large institutions, including Oxford’s universities, BMW and the Ellison Institute, are proposing billions of pounds of investment in Oxford over the coming years.  

To protect housing sites, the Council’s existing Local Plan 2036 prioritises housing over economic developments. No new land was allocated for employment sites and developers were required to intensify existing employment sites.  

The Local Plan 2040 aims to build on this by ensuring Oxford’s successful economy works for all residents. New policies include:  

• encouraging the intensification of existing economic development sites near sustainable transport hubs 

• requiring large housing developments (50+ homes) to create a Community Employment Plan, setting out how the development will hire residents, pay fair wages and offer opportunities for local young people 

• requiring commercial development proposals to include a strategy for delivering affordable workspaces for small local start-ups as part of their masterplans  

Supporting stronger communities  

Oxford is a starkly divided city. The gap in life expectancy for men between the least and most deprived parts of Oxford is up to 16 years, and 29% of children live below the poverty line.  

To improve public health and bring people together, the existing Local Plan 2036:  

• protected and encouraged more leisure, community and cultural facilities in district centres (Blackbird Leys, Cowley Centre, Cowley Road, Headington and Summertown) that are within a short walk, bike or bus ride of most Oxford residents 

• required major developers to submit a health impact assessment, which sets out the ways the development will promote healthy lifestyles – for example, with new walking routes, playing fields or parks)  

The Local Plan 2040 aims to take this further, including by:  

• protecting existing leisure, community and cultural facilities, and requiring new facilities that attract people – from workplaces to places of worship – to be located near homes and existing public transport hubs 

• encouraging low-car developments across Oxford with good, secure bicycle parking  

The Local Plan 2040 aims to build on the success of Barton Healthy New Town, which was showcased at the World Health Organisation’s Healthy Cities Conference in 2018. As well as new homes, the Barton Park development was designed to embed health and wellbeing into the fabric of the community - including pleasant walking routes in new parks, outdoor gym equipment, sports facilities, improved allotments, and homes designed for whole lifetimes.  

Protecting and enhancing heritage  

Oxford is a world-renowned city with a rich and diverse built heritage, including colleges, museums and an iconic skyline.  

The new Local Plan 2040 continues to encourage new, high-quality buildings within Oxford’s world-famous conservation areas – but only if these buildings respect and draw from the city’s heritage.  

Similarly, Oxford’s skyline will continue to be protected, but the Local Plan 2040 does allow for new higher buildings – if they are in the right location and make a positive contribution to design.