Oxford City Council agrees Budget

The Budget – which is balanced for the next four years – comes against a backdrop of austerity, rising costs, especially around homelessness, inflation and councils declaring bankruptcy across the UK.

This has been achieved in part through the ‘Oxford Model’, which will see the Council’s companies generate £19m in profit over the next four years to help fund services.

The Budget was agreed at a Full Council meeting yesterday evening.

Key Budget proposals

The Council’s Budget includes funding for:

• 1,558 new council homes over the next eight years
• Two new community centres, in East Oxford and Blackbird Leys
• Increased grass cutting – to at least three times a year – across Oxford
• Increased litter picking across Oxford and a new graffiti removal service
• Better gritting of cycle lanes and pavements
• A new splash park in Hinksey and renewal of outdoor gym equipment
• A freeze on pitch-hire fees for sports teams

The Budget will take the number of council homes owned by Oxford City Council to almost 9,500, which, thanks to the energy efficiency work, will be warmer and use less energy.

The Council will also continue to maintain its leisure centres, community centres, parks, youth clubs, and other existing services for residents and businesses.

Changes to the Budget

The Council’s Budget was first proposed in December 2024.

Since then, the Government has provided additional funding to local authorities, including a further £600,000 to assist in prevention of homelessness.

As Oxford City Council had already budgeted to provide some support for homeless people, this has freed up funding that can be spent on other priorities.

The changes to the Budget compared to the consultation Budget include:

• £200,000 to pilot a new scheme to help people in supported accommodation
• £310,000 for additional graffiti removal across Oxford
• £157,000 for additional gritting of pavements and bike lanes
• £170,000 to provide free leisure facilities in Blackbird Leys and £60,000 for a new play area in the city centre if a site can be found
• £100,000 to replace outdoor gym equipment across Oxford
• £316,000 to reverse planned cuts to ward member and community grants

The Council also agreed £2.5m to help reopen passenger services on the Cowley Branch Line, and a further £1m to enhance the £8m redevelopment of the Covered Market.

Oxford Model

Oxford City Council owns two companies, ODS and OX Place, that generate income to help fund frontline services. This is known as the ‘Oxford Model’.

ODS carries out street cleaning, bin collections and parks maintenance for Oxford residents, but also sells those services to businesses and institutions to generate income.

OX Place’s main aim is to build new council homes for Oxford residents, but it also builds open market sale and shared ownership homes to generate income.

The companies are expected to generate about £19m in dividends returns over the next four years.

The ‘Oxford Model’ now represents 10% of the Council’s annual Budget. This compares to 26% for fees and charges, 20% for Council Tax, 15% for Business Rates and 15% for commercial rent. Government grants represent just 6% of the Council’s budget.

Council Tax 

Council Tax will increase by 2.99% in 2025/26.

For a Band D Council Tax property, a 2.99% increase equates to £10.36 per year (or 20p a week), bringing a total charge of £356.72 per annum (or £6.86 per week) to fund Oxford City Council.

Separate Council Tax precepts support Oxfordshire County Council, the Thames Valley Police and Crime Commissioner and the Parish Councils in Blackbird Leys, Old Marston, Littlemore and Risinghurst & Sandhills.

Oxford City Council continues to provide a full discount on Council Tax for Oxford residents on the lowest incomes. It is one of relatively few councils across the UK to still do so.

Second homes in Oxford will be charged double Council Tax from 2025.

Comment

“We’ve been listening: our residents’ survey said that people wanted their City Council to get the basics right, so we are stepping up spend on graffiti removal, pavement repairs and gritting, verge cutting, litter picking and free play provision.  We will build more than 1,500 new council homes to help local families in housing need.  We are going to retain our award-winning youth ambition service, grants to voluntary organisations and will build two new communty centres at East Oxford and Blackbird Leys.

“This is in the context of a shortfall in government funding, but we have managed to avoid major cuts to frontline services by our ‘Oxford Model’, which uses income from our wholly owned companies, partnerships and commercial property to support the front line.”

Councillor Ed Turner, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance and Asset Management