Oxford City Council is proposing a £32m investment to support homeless families as part of its new four-year Budget.
The Budget, covering 2026/27 to 2029/30, also sets out plans to build 1,305 new affordable homes, support the Cowley Branch Line, and extend Hinksey Outdoor Pool’s opening months.
This investment is supported in part by the ‘Oxford Model’, which will see the Council’s companies generate £12.6m in dividends over the next four years to help fund services.
Oxford City Council remains the only council in Oxfordshire to publish a full four-year Budget – a sign of the organisation’s financial strength.
The proposals have been developed in the context of local government reorganisation, which will see the Council abolished in 2028, and ahead of national reforms to local government finance in 2026.
Temporary accommodation
The Budget includes £32m to help acquire up to 260 additional homes for Oxford residents who need temporary accommodation.
This would increase the Council’s temporary accommodation stock from around 200 homes today – with 100 already due to be delivered through existing plans in 2026 – to 560 homes by 2028/29. The Council had 100 homes for temporary accommodation in 2023.
Temporary accommodation supports people who would otherwise be homeless. This can happen for a range of reasons, including rising rents and relationship breakdowns.
The Council is currently housing 309 households in temporary accommodation, including 145 households in hotels and B&Bs, which are both expensive and less suitable.
Purchasing homes will enable the Council to move away from hotel-based accommodation. This will save around £14.5m a year in avoided costs by 2029/30.
Key Budget proposals
The Council’s Budget proposals also include:
- £385.6m to build or purchase 1,305 new affordable homes over the next six years
- Funding for a Cowley Branch Line programme manager
- Extending Hinksey Outdoor Pool opening hours to include March and October
- £1m for essential roof works at Oxford Ice Rink
- Reintroducing a creche at Blackbird Leys Leisure Centre
- Recruiting new community response officers to tackle anti-social behaviour
The 1,305 affordable homes includes about 1,200 new builds, with the rest acquisitions. About 900 of the homes will be new council homes, with the rest available for shared ownership.
This investment would take the number of council homes owned by Oxford City Council to about 9,000 by the end of 2032.
The proposals will use £7.8m of reserves over the four-year period, leaving around £25m of useable reserves. There is uncertainty about the exact level of government funding going forward, with clear information expected just before the end of 2025.
Core services
Oxford City Council provides a wide range of services for Oxford’s 165,200 residents, including:
- 8,077 council homes
- 17 community centres
- Five leisure centres
- Youth clubs and holiday activities
- Parks and open spaces
- Bin collections, street cleaning and grass cutting
- Services such as planning, licensing and food safety
The Council is also involved in major developments in Oxford, including the Blackbird Leys redevelopment, Covered Market transformation, and Oxford Burial Meadow.
The Council pays its staff and contractors the Oxford Living Wage.
Oxfordshire County County provides the city’s other council services, including adult social care, children’s services, transport, public health, fire and rescue, and libraries.
Oxford Model
Oxford City Council owns two companies – ODS and OX Place – which generate income to help fund frontline services. This is known as the ‘Oxford Model’.
ODS carries out street cleaning, bin collections and parks maintenance for Oxford residents, but also sells those services to businesses and institutions to generate income.
OX Place’s main aim is to build new council homes for Oxford residents, but it also builds open market sale and shared ownership homes to generate income and meet Oxford’s other housing needs.
The companies are expected to generate about £12.6m in dividends to the Council over the next four years.
Dividends generated through the ‘Oxford Model’ still account for around 10% of the Council’s annual budgeted income. This compares to 28% for fees and charges, 21% for Council Tax, 16% for Business Rates, 20% for commercial rent, and 5% for government grants.
Council Tax
Under the proposals, Council Tax will increase by 2.99% in 2025/26. This is below inflation, which was 3.6% in October.
For a Band D Council Tax property, a 2.99% increase equates to £10.67 per year (or 21p a week), bringing a total charge of £367.38 per annum (or £7.07 per week) to fund Oxford City Council.
Separate Council Tax precepts support Oxfordshire County Council, the Thames Valley Police and Crime Commissioner and the parish councils in Blackbird Leys, Old Marston, Littlemore and Risinghurst & Sandhills.
Oxford City Council continues to provide a full discount on Council Tax for Oxford residents on the lowest incomes. It is one of relatively few councils across the UK to still do so.
In 2025, the City Council started charging double Council Tax to second homes and empty homes in Oxford. Council Tax is tripled for homes that are empty for five years and quadrupled if they are empty for 10.
Comment
“Our priority is to protect the most vulnerable while continuing to invest in Oxford’s future. This Budget does that.
“By expanding our own temporary accommodation, we can give families in crisis a better place to live and save significant costs at the same time.
“Despite the challenges facing councils nationally, our finances remain stable and we’re able to keep delivering the homes, services and improvements our city needs.
“If additional funding becomes available from government, we will look to use that to support services and keep reducing the gap between the best and worst off in our city.”
Councillor Ed Turner, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance and Asset Management
The Budget proposals will be discussed at a Cabinet meeting next week (10 December).
To read the full proposals, visit the Council's website.
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