We are preparing a new Local Plan 2045 for the city to guide where new development can go and to tackle the main challenges that people and businesses in Oxford are facing. The plan will include policies on the following key topics:
- prioritising the delivery of affordable housing for Oxford’s needs, especially social housing and key worker housing
- flexibly allowing residential development on land currently used for employment, such as offices and business areas
- addressing climate change, flood risk and seeking to protect new buildings from adverse impacts
- requiring low carbon and environmentally friendly buildings with carbon and efficiency standards that will seek to go beyond national requirements
- protecting heritage assets and their surroundings, protecting in-use cultural and community venues
- promoting good design of new buildings across the whole of the city
For a number of reasons, we have amended the plan period to 2025-2045, rather than 2022-2042. The evidence base is being updated to align with this plan period and the updated Local Development Scheme includes an updated timetable for the production of the Local Plan.
Submission of Local Plan
The draft Local Plan 2045 was submitted to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government on 14 July 2026, which marks the beginning of the public examination. The Secretary of State will appoint an independent Inspector in due course to conduct the Examination. The role of the Inspector is to consider the Local Plan and Proposals Map, and determine whether they are sound, legally compliant and fulfils the duty to co-operate.
View Oxford Local Plan 2045 Statement of Submission (PDF 147kB)
View Submission letter to Planning Inspectorate (PDF 345kB)
The process is managed by the Planning Inspectorate (PINS), and timetabling will be outside of our control. Further information will be posted on our webpages as details are confirmed. The Council will also appoint a Programme Officer, who will serve as the main point of contact during the Examination.
The submitted documents include the following:
- Submission draft of the Local Plan
- a copy of all representations received during the Regulation 19 consultation,
- a schedule of minor modifications to the Plan
- the evidence base and other supporting documents
All information associated with both the submission and the public examination itself can be found on the Local Plan Examination page.
Next Steps
We anticipate the timescales for the next stages to roughly be as follows:
- Examination: Autumn / Winter 2026 (dependent on Planning Inspectorate)
- Adoption: May 2027
The full detail of our timetable for developing the new Local Plan is set out in the Local Development Scheme (LDS).
