Oxford Local Plan 2040 drafted

Oxford City Council’s Local Plan aims to build more affordable homes, tackle the climate emergency and make Oxford’s economy work for all residents.

The policies are subject to consultation running for eight weeks to Friday 05 January 2024.

The City Council also consulted Oxford residents and organisations on the options last year and used the comments from 1,730 respondents across two consultation rounds to draft the new document.

The proposed policies will support the successful development of Oxford West End, including:

• Requiring all new homes and businesses to be zero carbon in operation
• Requiring all major developments to plant more trees, hedges and other greenery to meet new minimum standards
• Requiring developments of 10 or more homes to provide at least 40% as affordable housing
• Allowing homes to be built on all employment sites for the first time
• Requiring large developments to establish and deliver a plan to employ local people and deliver affordable workspaces
• The Local Plan also identifies sites where 9,612 new homes will be built across Oxford by 2040 to help tackle the city’s housing crisis.

Changes are also proposed to the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL), which requires large developers to contribute towards local infrastructure improvements. Due to a significant rise in the value of business space – particularly office and lab space – in Oxford, the City Council is proposing to require developers of this land to contribute more to the local area.

Next steps

The views from the consultation will be used to create final drafts, which will be published and then submitted to the Government’s Planning Inspectorate in spring 2024. As part of the consultation process, people will be able to request the right to be heard by the inspectors when it is publicly examined.

If the planning inspector approves them, they could be adopted in summer 2025.

If agreed, the Local Plan will become the legal document that underpins decision-making on all planning applications in Oxford. It will replace the existing Oxford Local Plan 2036.

Further information

Oxford Local Plan 2040 Submission Draft (Regulation 19) Consultation

Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) partial charging schedule review