Oxford’s Local Plan has been thrown into chaos after the Planning Inspectorate (PINS) said the city council failed to co-operate with neighbouring authorities and its housing numbers were wrongly calculated.
In its examination of the draft Oxford Local Plan 2040, the PINS accepted the city council’s assessment that 481 homes a year are needed within the city but rejected the council’s proposal that 1,322 should be built across neighbouring authorities to meet its need – and says the plan should be withdrawn.
The council believes the city’s economic growth has created the need for more homes than allowed for by the default Standard Method for calculating how many are needed.
But the PINS report raises concern that, following the demise of the Oxfordshire Plan 2050 in 2022, Oxford City Council proceeded with Cherwell District Council to commission a Housing and Economic Needs Assessment (HENA) without the involvement of the other three Oxfordshire councils.
Among its concerns, the PINS says there was a lack of minutes or meeting notes from discussions with the other three Oxfordshire authorities and, at the examination hearing in June, South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse districts gave versions of the discussions which contradicted that of the city council.
The PINS concluded that, while the city council identified a need for 16, 828 homes between 2020 and 2040 and stated 14,300 of them would be accommodated in other Oxfordshire authorities, those commitments from the other authorities were from a different round of plan-making, used different evidence and dealt with a different time period.
PINS stated: “From what we can see the council has made no attempt to discuss how and where the newly identified, unmet need up to 2040 would be met. It has relied, to a large extent, on these previous agreements and commitments.”
The report goes on to say those councils’ concerns were not, in themselves, a reason to conclude a failure of the duty to co-operate. But it went on: “It is the approach taken by the council and its actions during the preparation of the Local Plan that are key factors in our assessment of compliance with the duty.
“Unfortunately, for the above reasons, we do not consider that the council has engaged constructively, actively and on an ongoing basis in relation to the strategic matters of housing needs and unmet housing needs. Given this we conclude that the council has not satisfied the duty to co-operate.”
The report says the recommendations of the HENA are flawed and the council’s approach to housing need is unjustified, meaning the Local Plan is not sound.
It said there is no justification for moving away from the Standard Method for calculating housing need.
But in a statement, published in response to the PINS report, leader of the city council Cllr Susan Brown blasted the PINS report.
She said: “We are alarmed and extremely disappointed by the recommendation to withdraw our Local Plan 2040 from public examination.
“The planning inspectors have failed to grasp the seriousness of Oxford’s housing crisis and the number of new homes we need to tackle this crisis – and don’t appear to have heeded the clear message from Government which requires all councils to up their housing delivery ambitions.
“The logical outcome of the inspectors’ conclusions will be a delay to proactively planning for the homes we need. The reality is that while the city council are builders, there are others elsewhere who are blockers. Waiting for a situation where all councils in Oxfordshire are agreed on housing numbers and cross-boundary matters is just not realistic. That’s why the Government is planning the reintroduction of mandatory housing delivery targets.
“Our approach hasn’t changed. Yet the PINS now says there are no exceptional circumstances and we should now use the current ‘Standard Method’ – already rejected by the new government – for working out how many homes we need. This would mean fewer homes being built, and far fewer than we actually need.
“The current standard method is not fit for purpose and flies in the face of the Government’s policy intention to overhaul a broken national planning system and deliver 1.5 million homes. The current Standard Method does not even take account of population increases that have already happened in Oxford and across Oxfordshire recorded in the census. Using this discredited method to calculate how many homes we need would make the city’s housing crisis worse.
“Oxford City Council also disputes the finding it has not met the duty to cooperate. We have a longstanding history of working collaboratively with neighbouring councils and other stakeholders on planning issues affecting Oxfordshire – including during the preparation of this plan.
“The duty to cooperate is not a duty to agree. Nor should it be a charter for those who object the loudest to be able to block the building of desperately needed homes.”
The PINS report can be seen here.
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