| Due to a revision in the way the Council’s is able to calculate housing targets, West Oxfordshire District Council (WODC) can now demonstrate a ‘five-year housing land supply’ which will mean it has greater control over the planning process. |
| WODC’s adopted Local Plan recently passed its fifth anniversary and because housing policies need updating, the Council is now able to calculate its housing land supply using the Government’s alternative ‘standard method’. Carl Rylett, Executive Member for Planning and Sustainable Development stated, “This is highly significant news. We remain committed to building the right number of houses in the right places, but the fact that we have not been able to demonstrate a full five-year supply of housing sites over the last 12 months has put us at risk from speculative development in unsuitable locations. “Revising our calculation reduces this risk and allows us to concentrate on making swift progress with our new Local Plan, setting a new housing target to 2041 and identifying a pipeline of suitable sites, supported by the right investment in infrastructure.” For West Oxfordshire, this is much lower than stated in the current Local Plan. The result is that the Council can now demonstrate a 5.4-year supply of deliverable housing sites, meaning it has a greater degree of control when determining speculative planning applications for housing. |
Revised housing targets mean Council regains greater control of planning process
