Authority Monitoring Report - 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024

Chapter 4: Contents

• Housing completions
• Housing delivery on allocated sites
• Changes of use
• Student accommodation completions
• Care home completions
• Other communal accommodation completions
• Housing permissions
• Affordable housing permissions
• Employer-linked affordable housing permissions
• Self-build and community-led housing permissions
• Student accommodation permissions
• Older persons and specialist and supported living accommodation permissions
• Housing land supply
• Cultural and community facilities
• Assets of community value

Housing completions

4.1. In the 2023/2024 monitoring year, 365 (net) dwellings were completed in Oxford. The cumulative number of dwellings completed in the 8 years since the start of the Local Plan period (2016/17 to 2023/24) is 4145 dwellings (net) with the application of ratios for communal accommodation (student, care and other communal accommodation completions) (Table 10).

4.2. The completed 4,145 dwellings exceeds the 4,076 dwellings (net) projected to be completed by 2023/24 in the Local Plan’s housing trajectory. Figure 6 shows the Local Plan housing requirement (based on the stepped trajectory of 475 dwellings per annum between 2016/17 to 2020/21, and 567 dwellings per annum between 2021/22 to 2035/36) compared to completions and projections.

4.3. Figure 7 provides the same information expressed as a comparison between cumulative requirement and cumulative supply over the Local Plan period.  From 2024/25 onwards these are projected numbers.

4.4. Table 10 shows that of the 365 total completions in 2023/24, 61 were affordable dwellings. Table 11 shows a breakdown of the sites that delivered affordable housing during the monitoring year including the affordable tenure:

4.5. Since the start of the Local Plan period (2016/17) there have been a total of 998 affordable homes built (Figure 8).  

4.6. The Council is committed to delivering more affordable housing in Oxford and has been identifying land in its ownership capable of delivering affordable homes and bringing this forward wherever possible. Of the 61 affordable dwellings completed in 2023/24, 49 were delivered on City Council land as set out in Table 12:

Housing delivery on allocated sites

4.7. Since the start of the Local Plan period (2016/17), 9 allocated sites have recorded completions.  For the 2023/24 monitoring period, 83 completions on allocated sites were recorded. The wider context though is that allocated sites play a small role relative to the total 365 completions that have occurred this year.

(n.b. there were no completions on site allocations between 2016 – 2019).
n.b. The John Radcliffe Hospital Site contains key worker housing, some of which is considered communal accommodation, so a dwelling equivalent ratio is included within the completion figure.

Changes of use

4.8. Of the 365 dwellings completed during the 2023/24 monitoring year, 6 dwellings were delivered through the change of use of existing buildings from non-residential to C3 residential.  These change of use applications are set out in the table below (Table 14).

4.9. All dwellings delivered through changes of use from non-residential to residential in 2023/24 were market housing.  Of the four applications, three required planning permission, with the remainder submitting an application for a prior approval (22/02824/EC56).

Student accommodation completions

4.10. As per Planning Practice Guidance (see Housing supply and delivery on GOV.UK), student accommodation can be counted in housing land supply figures.  In the 2023/24 monitoring year 84 (net) units of student accommodation were completed in Oxford (30 rooms at Frewin Quod, New Inn Hall Street (19/02601/FUL) and 54 rooms at Castle Hill House, 9 New Road (19/02306/FUL)).  Note, although work is underway on the construction of new student rooms at Clive Booth Student Village this is a phased development being built out over several years.  It will be reported in a future AMR once works on the site are fully completed.  Using the ratio of 2.5:1 (as set out in Paragraph 10 of the Housing Delivery Test Measurement Rule Book on GOV.UK) the 84 (net) units of student accommodation  equated to 34 C3 equivalent dwellings to Oxford’s housing market (Table 15). This 34 ‘equivalent dwellings’ figure is included within the 365 total dwellings figure shown in Table 10 above.

Care home completions

4.11. As per Planning Practice Guidance, care homes can be counted in housing land supply figures.  In the 2023/24 monitoring year there were no completions resulting in a net gain or net loss of any care accommodation. 

Other communal accommodation completions

4.12. Other communal accommodation can also be counted in housing land supply figures as per guidance set out in the Housing Delivery Test Measurement Rulebook.  In the 2023/24 monitoring year, there was a net loss of 18 key worker rooms provided as cluster units at the John Radcliffe Hospital Site (Ivy Lane - 19/01038/FUL).  Using a 1.8:1 ratio of rooms to dwellings delivered this equates to a C3 equivalent figure of -10.  This is included in the figures shown in Table 10 above.

Housing permissions

4.13. Whilst housing completions are important for considering housing supply and delivery, they only show part of the picture.  It is also relevant to consider planning permissions to understand the number of dwellings that the City Council is permitting.

4.14. Table 16 shows C3 self-contained dwellings permitted (net) since the start of the Local Plan period. This considers C3 dwellings gained and lost through new build completions, demolitions, changes of use and conversions. It includes outline permissions but excludes these where reserved matters have subsequently been permitted to avoid double counting.

4.15. Table 16 shows that over the 2023/24 monitoring period, planning permission was granted for 178 C3 residential dwellings. These permissions have been included in the ‘cumulative supply’ (Figure 7 above).  Of the 178 permitted dwellings, 88 are market dwellings and 90 are affordable dwellings.

Affordable housing permissions

4.16. Local Plan policy H2 requires a minimum of 50% affordable provision on qualifying self- contained residential development sites, with a capacity for 10 or more dwellings or which exceed 0.5 hectares. At least 40% of the overall number of units on the site should be provided as on-site social rented dwellings. In March 2022 the government introduced changes to planning practice guidance that affect policy H2, so that there is now a requirement for an element of all affordable homes to be First Homes.  There has only been 1 residential permission in the 2023/24 monitoring year that met the threshold for applying Policy H2 as shown in Table 17 below. Provision of affordable housing for this site exceeded the policy requirements by providing 100% of the homes as affordable, and as such the proposal was exempt from the government requirement for First Homes.

4.17. In addition to the application set out in Table 17 above, Policy H2 also requires a financial contribution to be secured towards delivering affordable housing elsewhere in Oxford from new student accommodation of 25 or more student units (or 10 or more self-contained student units). Alternatively, this can be provided onsite where it is agreed that the provision is appropriate. The exception to this is where the proposal is within an existing or proposed student campus site, or the proposal is for the redevelopment of an existing purpose-built student accommodation site owned by a university to meet the accommodation needs of its students. Over the 2023/24 monitoring period there were no student accommodation applications that met the threshold for applying Policy H2.  

4.18. Local Plan policy H5 seeks to protect Oxford’s existing housing stock by resisting the net loss of any dwellings. There is however some flexibility within the policy to allow a loss where there are exceptional justifications. Over the 2023/24 monitoring period, there were 5 applications permitted that result in the loss of dwellings. The first at 42 Park Town where a ground floor dwelling and basement flat were amalgamated to form one dwelling (22/00998/FUL), the second at 153 Hollow Way where a C3 dwelling house was loss to a children’s residential care home (use class C2) (23/00273/FUL), the third at 2 Charlbury Road, where 2 x 3 bed flats were amalgamated to form 1 x 6 bed dwelling house (22/00304/FUL), the fourth at 118 High Street where a C3 dwelling was lost to office and teaching rooms (use class F1)(the C3 dwelling was a fellow’s flat only accessible through the teaching accommodation, with limited kitchen facilities, so was not a loss of a self-contained unit) (23/02125/FUL), and the fifth at 27 Norham Road where 5 C3 flats were converted to a 1 x 7 bed dwelling house with 2 x basement flats (23/01254/FUL).

Employer-linked affordable housing permissions

4.19. Policy H3 allows planning permission to be granted on specific identified sites for employer-linked affordable housing. Over the 2023/24 monitoring period, the Council did not receive or approve any applications for employer-linked affordable housing. This is a very specific housing type, only permissable on a limited number of sites so as to avoid conflict with delivery of Social Rented housing. During the Plan period, schemes with this housing type have so far come forward at the Churchill and John Radcliffe Hospital sites, which will deliver much needed staff accommodation. Further schemes on hospital and university sites are expected over the course of the Plan period. 

Self-build and community-led housing permissions

4.20. Community-led housing is one element of the government’s agenda to increase supply and tackle the housing crisis. Community-led housing projects can include both group self-build and cohousing. Community-led housing requires meaningful community engagement throughout the process, with the local community group or organisation ultimately owning or managing the homes to benefit the local area or community group. The approach of Policy H7 is to help encourage sufficient self-build and custom housebuilding to come forward to meet demand, to support community-led housing, and to guide applications that come forward for these housing types. Over the 2023/24 monitoring period, the Council did not receive or approve any applications for self-build or community- led housing.   

Self and Custom-Build Register

4.21. The City Council is required (by the Self-build and Custom Housebuilding Act 2015) to keep a register of individuals and groups who are seeking to acquire serviced plots of land in Oxford on which to build their own homes. The Planning Practice Guidance encourages authorities to publish headline information related to their Self-build and Custom Housebuilding Registers in their AMRs. 

4.22. Over the 2023/24 monitoring year there has been an increase of 3 individuals on the Oxford Self and Custom Build Register and an increase of just under 2 percent in the total number of plots required, as shown in Table 18 below.

Student accommodation permissions

4.23. Over the 2023/24 monitoring year, there were 5 planning permissions that involved the provision of student accommodation. Table 19 below sets out whether these were compliant with the requirements of policy H8 which seeks to limit the provision of new student accommodation to designated sites within the city.

4.24. Local Plan policy H9 seeks to link the delivery of new/ redeveloped and refurbished university academic facilities to the delivery of university provided residential accommodation. This has been considered in the previous Chapter of this AMR (Section 3.9) as it is connected to Policy E2.

Older persons and specialist and supported living accommodation permissions

4.25. Local Plan policy H11 sets out criteria against which applications for older persons and specialist and supported living accommodation will be considered. The Policy also indicates that existing extra-care accommodation should be protected unless it is to be replaced elsewhere or it can be shown that it is surplus to requirements. Over the monitoring period there were no applications permitted for older persons or specialist / supported living accommodation.

Housing land supply

4.26. In the updates to the NPPF published in 2023, Paragraph 76 supersedes the previous requirements to set out a five year housing land supply (previously Paragraph 73 of the NPPF). The Oxford Local Plan 2036 was adopted in June 2020 so it meets the criteria of having an adopted plan that is less than 5 years old, and as such the City Council is no longer required to identify a five-year housing land supply (although the consultation draft NPPF published in 2024 seeks to reverse this amend and reinstate the requirement to demonstrate housing land supply). The Housing Delivery Test requirements are also met, in accordance with NPPF paragraph 79. However for reference, the housing land supply calculations are set out below, to illustrate for our own monitoring purposes that Oxford can still demonstrate an appropriate supply of housing land (still applying the approach set out in the previous superseded NPPF).

4.27. The City Council has identified a deliverable supply of 3,446 homes (row I in Table 22 below) for the five year period 2024/25 to 2028/29. This includes the forecast supply from large sites, including those which have been allocated in the Local Plan 2036 and outstanding permissions  (commitments), plus a windfall allowance.  A 5% buffer has been applied to the five year requirement total as per the advice in the previous (superseded) national guidance (Paragraph: 037 Reference ID: 3-037-20180913: Revision date: 13 09 2018) to ensure choice and competition in the market.  This gives a housing land supply of 5.93 years as shown in Table 20. Note, because the current adopted Local Plan is LP2036, the annual requirement of 567 has been applied. The annual housing requirement in emerging LP2040 is not yet adopted policy.

4.28. The previous PPG suggested that a 10% buffer should be applied in some circumstances to ensure 5-year housing land supply is “sufficiently flexible and robust”. As above, whilst this is no longer a requirement of the current NPPF, the calculations are shown below for reference.  Even with this more cautious approach and the higher 10% buffer applied, this gives a housing land supply of 5.66 years.

Cultural and community facilities

4.29. It is important that new development in Oxford is supported by the appropriate infrastructure and community facilities. Providing and improving access to educational, health and community facilities greatly improves the quality of life for residents, builds strong communities and helps to address inequalities. The local plan through Policy V7: Infrastructure and cultural and community facilities seeks to protect existing facilities and will support improvements and more intensive use of existing sites, as well as protect against the loss of such facilities without the provision of new or improved replacements that are similarly accessible. Community facilities can include community centres, schools, children’s centres, meeting venues for the public or voluntary organisations, public halls and places of worship, leisure and indoor sports centres, pavilions, stadiums, public houses, club premises or arts buildings that serve a local community.

Permissions for new community facilities

4.30    During the monitoring period there were three applications permitted involving new community facilities and spaces. These are set out in Table 22 below. 

Permissions for temporary changes of use

4.31. Over the 2023/24 monitoring period, the Council did not receive or approve any applications for temporary changes of use for cultural or community facilities.

Assets of community value

4.32. The Community Right to Bid allows defined community groups to ask the Council to list certain assets as being of ‘community value’. The Localism Act (2011) and the Assets of Community Value Regulations (2012) set out the opportunities and procedures to follow for communities wishing to identify assets of community value and have them listed. If an asset is listed and then comes up for sale, the right gives communities six months to raise finance and put together a bid to buy it.

4.33. If the proposed asset is properly nominated, is in the Oxford City Council administrative area, and meets the definition, the City Council must add it to the List of Local Assets of Community Value and inform all specified parties (including a parish council if relevant). The Council must also place the asset on the local land charges register and, if the land is registered, apply for a restriction on the Land Register. Table 23 sets out the current register of successfully nominated assets of community value.  There have been no additional entries to the register over the monitoring period.