Oxford City Council calls for development land

Image: courtesy of ARC Group, showing the Oxford Business Park and housing adjacent to the BMW Mini plant at Cowley

Oxford City Council has announced that it is asking people to suggest sites which could be suitable for future development to inform the creation of its next Local Plan. The Local Plan 2042 will guide all planning decisions in Oxford for the next 17 years.  

It says it wants to hear from landowners, developers and others who know of sites with a potential range of future uses. Sites must be wholly or partly within Oxford’s administrative boundaries.  It will then fully assess sites capable of delivering 10 or more homes, 500m2 of employment floorspace or are bigger than 0.25 hectares: It states:

'Submission of a site for consideration does not mean it will be included in the Local Plan or get planning permission in future. The Council will also consider sites included in the preparation of earlier Local Plans. However, it encourages people to provide updates if any details have changed.'

It also stated:

'The adopted Local Plan 2036 remains in date and will continue to be used in determining planning applications. Producing the new Local Plan 2042 will not mean starting from scratch. Much of the work previously carried out for the LP2040 remains relevant and will inform policies in the 2042 plan.  

'The government issued a new national planning policy framework (NPPF) on 12 December 2024 and the 2042 Plan will need to align with this. Among other things, it reintroduced mandatory housing targets dropped in 2023 and the Council will prepare its new plan in line with the higher assessment of housing needs proposed under the new NPPF. A new class of ‘grey belt’ land means the Council will need to formally review Green Belt sites within Oxford. An initial assessment suggests there will be very little if any grey belt land in the city itself.'

On moving ahead with development that the Council says the city so desperately needs, its planning committee last month approved the planning application for the redevelopment of Oxpens. Councillor Alex Hollingsworth, Cabinet Member for Business, Culture and Inclusive Economy reported:

'This is a unique opportunity to redevelop one of the city’s largest remaining brownfield sites and is the largest housing development site in the city centre for generations. It will transform the area and kick start the wider regeneration of Oxford West End, helping it to realise its full potential. 

'Oxpens will deliver much-needed housing, with 50% being affordable, provide high-quality office and laboratory space in a highly sustainable location for jobs, a new hotel and public spaces, including an outdoor amphitheatre, 750sqm of publicly accessible play-space, and improved walking and cycling routes.  

'The plans will create new opportunities for residents and businesses, supporting economic growth and helping to build a better future for our city.'

In terms of a mix of housing, the Leader of the Council, Cllr Susan Brown commented at Future Cities Forum's 'Science Cities' discussion event in January, whether the new council housing coming over the next decade would serve all of Oxford's needs:

'This is all about our merging local plan and we have talked to employers about creating opportunities to build housing on their own land. Housing is so difficult here for many people with our constrained boundaries. To support our local economy we need wider boundaries and more housing of all sorts. We must help people in addition to council housing to get on the housing purchasing ladder. '

She also spoke on the opportunities for Oxford through the UK government's devolution plans:

'There are some massive opportunities for our region. There is some local geography allied to the Thames Valley which has the potential to be exceptional in providing opportunities for us and which will turn out to be significant to the economy. But there are challenges in Oxfordshire. With the local government reorganisation we do have to get this right. It is an historical opportunity as it was nearly fifty years ago that this situation occurred previously. We have to get it right for all businesses and residents. I Chair the 'Fast Growth Cities' and we have an important role for the national economy in this region. Oxford has to have its own government and expanded boundaries to ensure the economy continues to grow.

Image: Planned development areas in and around Oxford (from the Oxford Economic Strategy 2021 - courtesy Oxford City Council)

Tom Bridgman, Director of Development at Oxford City Council, who led our workshop at Future Cities Forum in January, said there was a huge opportunity in Oxfordshire for diversity of economic potential and growth across the whole of the county, but currently there has been a lack of a strategic plan for Oxfordshire and the wider region.:

'Outside of the city we have a challenging landscape for growth and need an approach that ensures the city and economic clusters thrive. We are still facing an affordable housing supply and our delivery of strategic housing sites has been slower than expected. Beyond the lack of affordability, over-crowding and poor health outcomes, there are unsustainable commuting patterns. We have labour force challenges, including attracting and retaining talent. Infrastructure remains a major check on the pace of residential and commercial development. There is a lack of capacity at the Oxford Sewage Treatment Works. Energy and infrastructure capacity constraints are stalling residential and economic growth and there needs to be improvements to bus services, cycling and walking facilities.'

However in recent business news, which must be unwelcome to local government, there has been the suggestion that Oxford's BMW factory at Cowley will not re-introduce electric vehicle production. The BBC reports that:

'BMW has confirmed it is delaying the reintroduction of electric vehicle production at its Oxford Mini plant. The vehicle manufacturer said "multiple uncertainties facing the automotive industry" had led to its decision decision to pause work on the £600m upgrade of its plant in Cowley. It said it had decided not to accept a related £60m grant from the government but remained in "close dialogue". The UK automotive industry has been in a long-running debate with the government over its targets for electric vehicle production.....Earlier this year, the government ran a fast-track consultation on changes to this policy, known as the zero emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate.'

In Cowley, Oxford City Council is working along with OxLEP and Oxford County Council, local landowners, Network Rail and the Department of Transport, on the opportunity of opening up the branch line connecting the city through Milton Keynes to Cambridge. Oxford City Council's Economy, City Centre and Green Transport Lead, Ted Maxwell, spoke enthusiastically at Future Cities Forum last June, about the opportunity of new stations for the Cowley Branch Line, which in his view will make a vast difference in connectivity and housing development, despite the tensions over discussions with Historic England in protecting landscape views:

'The Cowley Branch Line is not a silver bullet but if successful will be a real exemplar for other projects. The proposal is to upgrade the track infrastructure so it can work for passengers as well as freight. It will create two new stations for Littlemore and Cowley and there is an inherent logic to that connectivity in historic terms as there were stations in place sixty years ago. They are two of the most deprived wards in the city and yet there will be quick connections created to the city centre and beyond to Marylebone, London for those communities - and potentially to East West Rail to Bedford and Cambridge. I am working with Oxford County Council and three local land developers on funding and what we do not want is for these two stations to arrive like alien spaceships, and to make sure the severance made by the ring road is addressed and partly undone. Historic England is an interested party and will prefer to see sustainable connections, but we believe that control of economic development is supported by this scheme coming forward. We would like to see up to 10,000 new jobs being created. How high or dense the development should be are ongoing questions, but there is no doubt, whether it is existing housing or new development, all of it will be made more sustainable.'

Image: Oxford City Council wants to improve rail connections in the city through the opening up of the Cowley Branch line

The UK government has announced plans to build new housing around rail station infrastructure. Developers are also seeing the opportunity for science laboratory growth around rail stations. In an interview with Future Cities Forum, Artem Korolev, CEO of developer, Mission Street, said it also makes sense to build new science laboratories near Oxford's station:

'We thought why not build near the railway station in Oxford because you already have the infrastructure and don't have to build it. We also decided that you have to build quite big to allow for scale up. We now have a portfolio of a million square feet. We want to keep growing that footage so we can have our own masterplan approach. Before the CB1 development in Cambridge I remember the gateway into the city was under-whelming and now Oxford has that issue. The gateway into the city is not there. We want to build a huge mixed-use district with housing as well as university buildings. The Osney and Oxpens developments can create the best regeneration opportunities in the country I believe.'

Image: the Francis Crick Institute at King's Cross St Pancras

Gareth Roberts, Head of Development, Innovation and Life Science, British Land, added his thoughts at Future Cities Forum's Oxford Science Cities, on the challenges of where will investment come from, and where will growing science companies find space:

'We are leaning in via a partnership model. In the specialist arena of science and technology we are progressing this with three MoU's (memoranda of understanding) with leading institutions - the Francis Crick, UCL and with King's College London. These MoU's are about access to people, events and equipment that support that business journey. We have done this with the Crick with 30,000 square feet of new fitted lab space in the Knowledge Quarter near King's Cross and Euston to provide scale up space. These are institutions that businesses want to cluster around.

'The second way is anchored towards smaller businesses that are managing an extended funding time-line and trying to delay decisions for as long as possible as the elevated cost of funding for these businesses has meant that property is less affordable. We are trying to bridge these business relationships with the scale-ups who may go on to become the one to ten billion pound businesses that Professor Chas Bountra Pro-Vice Chancellor for Innovation at Oxford University has described. We want to operate at scale so we are investing in providing space for this stage of business.'