Causes and cost of Oxford’s housing crisis
Oxford is a small city with a longstanding shortage of suitable land for building homes.
This is an issue stretching back to the rapid expansion of the motor industry and associated trades which began in the 1920s.
Two rivers mean we have a large floodplain. We are also tightly constrained by a Green Belt which goes right up to our administrative boundaries.
Our largest remaining development site is Barton Park, which will have 885 homes when completed in 2027.
Our neighbouring councils do not have the same issue with space. For example, South Oxfordshire has three sites next to our boundaries which have been allocated for 5,900 homes.
Scarcity and high demand help make Oxford among the least affordable places to live in the UK.
Average house prices are more than 12 times household earnings and private rents are more than 50% higher than for England as a whole.
There are more than 3,300 households on the waiting list for a council home.
Unaffordable housing puts people at greater risk of homelessness. It pushes them into hardship, overcrowded and unfit conditions or out of Oxford altogether.
The 2021 Census found a 23% reduction in under-fives compared to 2011 – a clear sign young families find it increasingly difficult to live here.
Even before the cost-of-living crisis, unaffordable housing meant more than a quarter of Oxford’s children lived below the poverty line.
Bad housing has a devastating impact on children’s health and wellbeing and casts a long shadow over their future life chances.
Oxford needs homes.
