This afternoon (26th September) the Oxfordshire Growth Board agreed the apportionment of housing for each district resulting from Oxford’s unmet need. It is now up to each individual district to determine how they will meet that figure.
The Growth Board is made up of each of the councils in Oxfordshire along with representatives of other organisations such at the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) and the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) as non-voting members.
Today’s meeting marks the end of the latest chapter in developing a Local Plan for the Vale, and indeed delivering Local Plan’s for the rest of Oxfordshire. The Growth Board was looking at the amount of housing that is required to be delivered in Oxford City but which the City Council is expected to be unable to deliver – the unmet need.
The other councils in Oxfordshire have a legal duty to cooperate to try to deliver this unmet need. Doing so comes in three parts: (1) determining the level of unmet need; (2) allocating that number between Oxfordshire’s rural districts and (3) determining how that additional level of housing will be delivered in those districts. Today’s meeting brings some certainty to the second part.
A ‘working assumption’ of 15,000 was agreed as Oxford’s unmet need last year. This remains to be tested and challenged at Oxford City’s Local Plan examination, but we have to start somewhere and it was significantly lower than first proposed by the City Council.
The work carried out by the Growth Board has apportioned 2,200 of this unmet need to the Vale of White Horse district. Today I agreed that figure on behalf of the Vale and the Council will now work to address this as we develop our work on Local Plan Part 2. This is level of additional housing is significantly lower that at one time expected. Indeed it is only 55% of the worst case scenario that we forecast just over a year ago. Delivering it will still be a challenge, but one that I believe we can overcome. Agreeing a figure also allows us to continue our work on the next stage of our Local Plan and makes it more likely that we will be able to deliver a sound plan that will stand the test of time.
There has however be understandable concern about housing sites (“areas of search”) discussed in the Growth Board papers. It is clear both from the report itself and from the debate at today’s meeting that the agreement today does not in anyway bind the Council to any particular housing site(s). The Vale did not put forward any of these sites and they have been used simply as a tool to forecast the potential capacity of each district. The method is imperfect, but it is one that has been accepted by Planning Inspectors and has allowed us to conclude this stage of the process.
For additional reassurance I have proposed the following amendment to the final Memorandum of Cooperation which was agreed without dissent.
3.6 The [Growth Board] Programme does not identify, propose, recommend or seek to identify, propose or recommend any site or sites for additional housing within any district. Each LPA will remain responsible for the allocation of housing sites within its own district and through its own Local Plan process.
With this additional reassurance I believe that the resolution today is good news for the Vale. There was no alternative available that would further reduce the additional housing we would need to take and this decision allows us to move forward publish proposals for consultation on how the Vale will deliver this additional housing.
It is also worth noting that the unmet need does not need to start being delivered before 2021 and is again still subject to Oxford City’s Local Plan. The Vale will robustly challenge Oxford during their Local Plan process to ensure that they are doing all they can to deliver their own housing before asking others to shoulder their burden.
