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CPRE Oxfordshire
CPRE Oxfordshire
Campaigning to protect Oxfordshire's countryside for 75 years
 
 
The South East Plan and Oxfordshire  
 

Further Information and CPRE Response to South East Plan.

News Update:

June 14 2010: Oxford Core Strategy EIP: resumption of hearing sessions postponed by Inspector.

The Inspector has now written to the City Council to confirm that he is postponing any resumption of the Examination in Public hearings in the light of the recent letter from the Secretary of State Eric Pickles to Council leaders proposing to abolish Regional Spatial Strategies (RSS) and return decision-making powers on housing and planning (including housing supply and the provision of travellers sites) to local councils without the framework of regional numbers and plans. The Minister of State has also announced changes to housing policy relating to previously developed land (private residential gardens) and housing density.

It is not clear whether and how the Oxford EIP might resume. This represents a fundamental change to the to local councils without the framework of regional numbers and plans. The Minister of State has also announced changes to housing policy relating to previously developed land (private residential gardens) and housing density. context of the Oxford Core Strategy and - given all the other issues which have affected this EIP - may mean a major re-think.  Many, including CPRE, consider the existing Core Strategy document and the entire process to be flawed and lacking credibility.

The Inspector says: “Consequently, at present, I consider that it would be difficult to proceed with the resumed hearing sessions until further clarity is available on the status of the RSS, and the means by which it will be abolished, and how decisions on housing and planning will be returned the local planning authorities without a framework of regional numbers and plans. 

I understand that a formal Ministerial statement on this matter will be released shortly.  I therefore intend to defer a decision about whether and when to resume the hearings until the nature, scope and approach of any revised housing and planning policy framework is clear, after the Ministerial Statement has been made.”

    • See the Inspector's letter here.

May 28 2010: CPRE Oxfordshire welcomes abolition of Regional Spatial Strategies and more say for local communities – but urges action to avoid policy vacuum.

The Government proposal to abolish Regional Spatial Strategies had been expected and CPRE Oxfordshire welcomes the move to reform planning and give back greater control to local communities.  But we need a clear, effective system to replace “top down” targets and deliver genuinely sustainable solutions, with protection for the countryside, the Green Belt, important landscapes and habitats. It is a golden opportunity to deliver sensible, sustainable planning and reduce the complexities which bedevil the current system.

With the Districts in the midst of their Core Strategies, the last thing Oxfordshire needs is a period of uncertainty and policy vacuum as this will only encourage speculative planning applications.  We would urge the Government to expedite new arrangements after full consultations, and provide effective national guidance which does not ride roughshod over local concerns.

With SE Plan targets removed, we would urge the five Districts to reconsider their housing plans to 2026 and formulate Core Strategies which are more sustainable and more in tune with local views.

Finally, this should not be a green light for the City to renew their ambitions to expand into the Green Belt. The Central Oxfordshire sub-regional strategy aims to maintain the city as a vibrant centre, while creating more jobs and investment in towns such as Bicester and Didcot to relieve the pressures.  We call on the five Districts and County Council to now work together responsibly to give new life to the Central Oxfordshire concept.
    • See: CPRE Oxfordshire Press Release (28 May).
    • See: Oxford Times (27 May).
    • See: Oxford Mail (27 May)
    • For more information on the Devolution and Localism Bill see DCLG website here.
    • For the full list of Bills see DCLG website here.

June 2009: CPRE Oxon takes legal action over Oxford Green Belt threat.

CPRE Oxon has decided to take legal action against the Government to contest the Government's decision to approve an urban extension south of the City in the Green Belt and on Tuesday 16th June, it served papers on the Secretary of State for the Environment.

South Oxfordshire District Council has also announced they are taking the Government to court on its Green Belt plans.

A Communities and Local Government spokesperson said in response: "The South East needs a long term strategy to strengthen the economy, address housing shortages and tackle the threat of climate change.

The Government remains committed to preserving the protections offered by the Green Belt, and we have no intention of fundamentally changing this policy. The amount of Green Belt land has increased since 1997.

This does not mean that the exact current Green Belt boundaries should be set in stone. The independent expert Panel for the SE Plan has recommended miniscule changes and this reflects the pressing housing need in these specific areas, and provides the opportunity to deliver 6,000 more homes combined. We are urging the local authorities to extend the Green Belt to replace this land." (Planning Portal, 18 June).

July 17 2008: Government target for new homes in Oxfordshire goes up to 55,200, including 4,000 in the Green Belt.

According to the Government’s proposed changes to the South East Plan published on July 17th, Oxfordshire is to get a substantial share of increased rates of housing development across the board for the South East region.

Overall the new targets mean the County will get a minimum of 55,200 net additional dwellings by 2026 (up from 47,200 allocated in the draft South East Plan); an annual average of 2,760 dwellings each year. But the increase will be concentrated on Central Oxfordshire with its share going up by almost 20% - from 34,000 to 40, 860. A “selective review” of Oxford’s Green Belt will see an urban extension south of Grenoble Road of at least 4,000 houses.

Such high levels of housing development are not sustainable. The consequent pressures on the land, including the risk of losing large areas of valued countryside and Green Belt, would be intolerable.

June 26 2008: Figures published by NHPAU suggest annual average house building rates for the South East ranging from 37,800 to 49,700.

In a press release on 26 June, the South East England Regional Assembly (SEERA) said new figures calling on the South East to consider building up to 50,000 homes a year are simply out of step with reality.

Assembly Chairman Cllr Keith Mitchell CBE says advice published by Government advisers - the National Housing and Planning Advice Unit (NHPAU) - runs contrary to the Assembly's own evidence base and is a clear attempt to undermine democratic decisions on critical planning matters.

2007:

The South East Plan

The South East England Regional Assembly (SEERA) based in Guildford is a collection of 106 delegates from County and District Councils, and public and voluntary bodies. SEERA is responsible for the South East Spatial Strategy, known as the South East Plan (though responsibility will transfer to the South East England Development Agency when SEERA is abolished).

The draft South East Plan was subject to a four month public inquiry which ended in March 2006. The Inspectors' findings were published on 29 August 2007. They contained bad news for Oxfordshire. The Inspectors raised targets for housing by 11% across the South East, and by 18% in Central Oxfordshire:

  • Central Oxfordshire will get 40,100 houses instead of the 34,000 planned, up 6,100 (17.9%). This is a growth of 2,005 dwellings a year.
  • Affordable housing in Central Oxfordshire will be cut by 960 houses against previous plans.
  • The Rest of Oxfordshire will get 14,500 houses instead of 13,200, up 1,300 (9.8%).
  • The South East will get 640,100 houses instead of 578,080, up 62,020 (10.7%).
  • There will be a “highly focused selective” review of the Green Belt to allow for an urban extension of 4,000 houses south of Grenoble Road.
  • The Inspectors assume that a new water supply will be provided through an Upper Thames Reservoir.
  • The Inspectors say that housing levels cannot wait for infrastructure to be built as "this would be unhelpful to investment".

The South East Plan: Housing

The Southeast England Regional Assembly has faced relentless demands from government bodies to build unacceptable numbers of houses across the South East and Oxfordshire. The draft plan contained the uncomfortable news that Oxfordshire would get 47,200 new houses over the next twenty years. The plan has recently been reviewed by government appointed inspectors and they have concluded that the county must take even more housing.

Planning District

Housing levels in the draft South East Plan
Housing levels in the Inspector's Report

Annual Average 2006–26

Total
2006-26
Annual Average 2006–26
Total
2006-26

Cherwell

590

11,800
640
12,800

Oxford City

350

7,000
600
12,000

South Oxfordshire

510

10,200

547
10,940

Vale of White Horse

575

11,500

578
11,560

West Oxfordshire

335

6,700

365
7,300

Oxfordshire

2,360

47,200

2,730
54,600

South East

28,900

578,000

32,008
640,160
Subregion
Central Oxfordshire
1,700
34,000
2,005
40,100
Rest of Oxfordshire
660
13,200
725
14,500

Even more uncomfortably, the plan is not finalised. The government has made it clear that the Inspectors' report predates the policies in the Housing Green Paper which called for 3 million new homes by 2020. The Secretary of State for the Environment, currently Hazel Blears, will make the final decision.

Timetable

The Panel report is now with Hazel Blears, the Secretary of State. She aims to publish her proposed changes towards the end of the year. There will then be a twelve week period of public consultation on the proposed changes. Following that consultation, the Secretary of State is expecting to publish the final South East Plan around Autumn 2008.

It may then be immediately reviewed under proposals to abolish the Regional Assemblies.

Further Information

CPRE Reaction and Briefings

CPRE Oxfordshire submissions to the EiP

  
 
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Published by CPRE Oxfordshire, Punches Barn, Waterperry Road, Holton, Oxfordshire OX33 1PP. 01865 874780.
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