Insight

Oxfordshire Local Plan Watch - Spring 2024

16.4.24 2 MINUTE READ

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We are seeing significant activity across Oxfordshire with all five local authorities having recently published or due to shortly publish draft Local Plans for consultation.

The prevailing themes of the local plan reviews are planning for the delivery of housing, employment, and infrastructure, including policies for sustainable growth and net zero carbon.

Oxford City Council is the most advanced with its local plan review, having submitted its draft Local Plan for Examination due to be held in late 2024. The draft Local Plan is underpinned by the concept of the 15-minute city with homes accessible to facilities and services. Notably, the draft Local Plan proposal for 9,612 additional homes over the plan period is a reduction to the adopted Local Plan. This raises the question as to whether more transformational growth is required for the City?

Cherwell’s Local Plan 2040 is being prepared on the basis of a shared housing and employment evidence base with the City Council. The recently published Regulation 18 Consultation Draft Local Plan sets out a policy for 25,860 homes in the plan period, including strategic housing allocations around Bicester and South of Heyford Park.

West Oxfordshire is to undertake consultation on Preferred Options in Summer 2024. The initial consultation addressed a series of potential growth scenarios, and it remains to be seen whether housing and employment will continue to be focussed on existing identified centres, or whether a further new settlement or more dispersed growth will be planned for throughout the county.

South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse have continued to focus areas for housing and employment growth within the Science Vale, including established centres including Didcot and Wantage and employment locations including Culham and Harwell and edge of Oxford.

Five-Year Land Supply

 

Meeting housing requirements, including unmet need for housing in Oxford, presents a key challenge for each of the Oxfordshire authorities, to be addressed through Local Plan reviews. This is underlined by the most recently published housing land supply for each authority, and recent appeal decisions which have brought these figures under the microscope.

For detail on emerging Local Plan position in Oxfordshire, please click on the map below.

Contributors:

Our Planning team

Neil Lawrence

Neil Lawrence

Associate, Planning

Neil has significant experience of advising private and public sector clients throughout all stages of the planning process.

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Chris Pattison 1

Chris Pattison

Deputy Head of Planning

Chris has been delivering challenging client briefs across Oxford, the South East and Scotland for more than 20 years.

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Spring 2024

Local Plan Watch

Our Local Plan Watch provides an update on the progress of the Local Plans coming forward across our region to allocate new land for development and highlights the key opportunities for landowners, promoters and developers. 

Read more
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Contributors:

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