A TOTAL of 485 council homes will be built in the city over the next 10 years to help ease Oxford’s housing crisis.

The city council has revealed it will be paid for by a pot of £96m set aside in the council’s budget for 2015/16.

The Oxford Mail revealed in January that not a single affordable home was built in the city in the 2013/14 financial year.

The return to building council homes over the next decade is aimed at easing the housing shortage in the city, where up to 32,000 extra homes are needed by 2031 according to Government targets.

Our top stories

That £96m, which will come from council reserves, selling assets and council rental income, will also be spent on improving existing housing stock to make properties more energy efficient.

Council cabinet member for finance Ed Turner said the investment would improve the lives of council tenants and help tackle the housing crisis facing Oxford.

He said: “It is probably our boldest step in a generation on housing. We face a crisis in terms of people being homeless and staying in Oxford because they cannot find anywhere to live and these homes will make a big difference. Of course they won’t solve it alone, but they will help.”

Blackbird Leys will receive £10.3m of the funding, with 230 affordable homes earmarked for the estate, in addition to 255 council homes in other parts of the city at a cost of £45m. Where these 255 homes will go is to be decided by the council in due course.

Money will also be spent improving existing properties by installing solar panels, improving insulation and energy efficiency.

There will be £4.7m to improve the Barton area, such as adding benches and sorting out street lights.

Cllr Turner added: “We also want to improve existing properties from within and meet our higher standards of energy efficiency.

“At a time when people are cash-strapped and are on a tight budget, these energy audits and solar panels are a way we can make a real difference to tenants.”

The housing investment has been announced despite a decrease in the council’s overall annual budget from £24m in 2014/15 to £23.1m.

As previously reported in the Oxford Mail, demands have been made to improve the area as new estate Barton Park is built nearby.

The budget will be considered by the city executive board on Wednesday before being voted on by councillors early next year.

But average council house rents are set to rise by 3.5 per cent, along with an expected 1.5 per cent rise in band D council tax – an extra £4.10 a year.

In total, £264.6m will be spent on housing over the next decade, with the £96m boost on top of £168.5m of spending already announced last year.

The investment will be funded by £65.3m of council reserves, £32m of loans, £11.1m raised by land or other assets sold off by the council, £2.4m from other grants and contributions and £153.8m of council income.

This council income will be partly made up by the rise in rent and council tax and the axing of the educational attainment programme, which is a short-term scheme launched in 2012 to help increase achievement for city students.

The price of parking in the city’s council-run car parks will also increase by up to 15p an hour and the price of using some of the council’s leisure centres will rise.

The Government has cut the amount of money it hands to the council by 49 per cent since 2010 and it is expected it will completely stop by 2018/19.

Mr Turner, pictured, said: “We are determined to mitigate the impact of austerity on our city and in particular to safeguard services for the most vulnerable.

“Notwithstanding the commitment to austerity from the coalition government and the difficult decisions that we need to take we remain firmly committed to making Oxford a fairer, more equal city for all its residents and to maintaining and improving the services that we provide.”

The investment in housing was welcomed by the leader of the Liberal Democrat group on the council Jean Fooks.

She said: “This is something that we as Lib Dems have been calling for.

“It is very important that we provide homes that are good for people to live in.

“But we also need to think about people just above the council housing level who are priced out of Oxford and a few hundred extra houses in Oxford will not bring down prices in the city itself.”

HOW THE MONEY WILL BE RAISED

  • £153m of the £264.6m to be spent on housing over the next decade will come from revenue raised by the council.
  • Some of this will come from a rise in average council rent by 3.5 per cent, the equivalent of £105.77 a year.
  • Band D council tax will also rise by 1.5 per cent – an extra £4.10 a year.
  • The cost of parking in council-run car parks will rise by 10p-20p an hour at Headington St Leonard’s Road Car Parks, Summertown Car Park and Union Street Car Park. It will go up by 20p for the first hour and 10p each hour for hours two, three and four. The fees for 4-6 hours, 6-8 hours and 8+ hours will go up by 30p.
  • Some leisure centre charges will rise. An annual Choice Card will rise by £11 a year for an adult from £517 to £528.
  • Swimming lesson prices at council pools will rise from £11.70 an hour for an adult to £12.
  • It will also cost more to open certain types of business in the city, with the fee for sex shops rising from £8,360 to £8,520.

WHERE THE CASH WILL BE SPENT

  • New-build housing across the city: £45m
  • Solar panel installation on more than 1,000 properties: £4.7m
  • Insulation works: £7.1m
  • Improving existing homes to meet council standards: £7.5m
  • Redeveloping maisonette blocks: £14.8m
  • Improving amenities in Barton: £4.7m
  • A new community hub and 230 affordable homes in Blackbird Leys: £10.3m

 


Do you want alerts delivered straight to your phone via our WhatsApp service? Text NEWS or SPORT or NEWS AND SPORT, depending on which services you want, and your full name to 07767 417704. Save our number into your phone’s contacts as Oxford Mail WhatsApp and ensure you have WhatsApp installed.