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Growth Board Says Let’s Build Affordable Homes

Oxfordshire Growth Board held an event for developers and registered providers of social housing to invite them to help deliver new affordable homes across the county supported by funding from the Housing and Growth Deal.

The event was held at Didcot Civic Hall 09:30-14:30 on Thursday 18 October. Officers from all four District Councils and Oxford City Council will set out details of the three-year programme to deliver at least 1,320 additional affordable homes countywide.

All forms of affordable tenure will be supported, including rent to buy, shared ownership, and homes for affordable and social rent to meet the needs of residents across the county and support the growth of the local economy.

Developers were also told of the Growth Board’s commitment to support and scale-up the application of off-site modular housing construction, and to build on the experience of Oxfordshire’s successful Bicester and Barton Healthy New Town initiatives to deliver healthy homes and communities.

Councillor Roger Cox, Leader of Vale of White Horse District Council, who hosted the event said:

“We want this programme to be a beacon of success and a step change in the delivery of affordable housing in Oxfordshire.   We are interested in providing for those on the lowest incomes, but we want also to help those who aspire to own their own homes. We want to develop the different types of housing that will meet the specific needs of the many different localities across the county.

“Most of all we want to create places in which to live, work and play that will be a legacy for our children and their families and to achieve this we both need and want to work in partnership with developers and registered providers.”

Kate Wareing, Chief Executive, SOHA Housing, said:

“Housing in Oxfordshire is amongst the most expensive in the country compared to average earnings, with a huge proportion of the people of Oxfordshire unable to access the affordable, secure accommodation they want and need for them and their families. Soha welcomes the Oxfordshire Growth Deal’s focus on enabling an increase in the number of affordable homes that can be built in Oxfordshire. Key to its success will be a combination of access to funding, supporting access to land at below market rates and enabling collaborations that create new opportunities to build more homes. We look forward to building more new homes for the people of Oxfordshire.”

More information about how the new affordable housing will be delivered and a detailed prospectus for developers can be viewed below.

Let’s Build Affordable Homes

Oxfordshire Affordable Homes Prospectus

Homes England Presentation

Affordable Housing Launch Presentation

SOHA Oxfordshire Housing and Growth Deal Presentation – Oct 18

Application Form

More clarity on Oxford to Cambridge Expressway required

The Oxfordshire Growth Board has called for the government to provide more clarity on its proposals for the route of the Oxford to Cambridge Expressway in Oxfordshire.

The chair of the Growth Board, Cllr Jane Murphy, has written to the Minister for Transport and the project’s director at Highways England explaining how the lack of certainty will affect work the board is doing to help plan for effective and sustainable growth that enhances the quality of life in Oxfordshire.

“you can read copies of the letters here”

Letter to Secretary of State Letter to Highways England

On 12 September the government announced its preference for a corridor that would take the new key road past Bicester and on to Cambridge via Milton Keynes. The road will begin somewhere along the A34 to the south of Oxford, but the government has not yet announced if it would prefer the road to route around the west of the city or to the east.

As part of the Oxfordshire Growth Deal, the growth board is preparing a plan to identify strategic growth areas for the whole county, known as the Joint Statutory Spatial Plan (JSSP). The lack of certainty over the route of the expressway through the county will make it more difficult to identify local transport needs and the most appropriate areas of growth.

In her letter, Cllr Murphy also explains that the Growth Board has agreed a set of principles saying that any decisions on the expressway should help to secure more sustainable public transport links for the county, minimise its environmental damage, support growth as set out in the JSSP and be future-proofed to enable forthcoming and future innovations like the rise of autonomous vehicles.

Cllr Jane Murphy “The expressway will have an impact on every resident and business in every area of Oxfordshire and the board is united in its belief that the government’s announcement in September has raised as many questions for Oxfordshire as it has answered.

“Much of the work the growth board is doing, in particular in relation to the Oxfordshire Housing and Growth Deal, will be directly or indirectly affected by the expressway, and we need more certainty if we’re to deliver the work required of us effectively.”