Agenda item

Cabinet will discuss and recommend Council on whether to approve the Oxfordshire Housing and Growth Deal.  If approved by the constituent authorities, delivery of the Deal will be overseen by the Oxfordshire Growth Board.  The Growth Board is a statutory joint committee of the six Oxfordshire local authorities, the Local Enterprise Partnership and key strategic partners. 

The Deal, as announced by Government in November 2017, provides £215 million of additional government funding for Oxfordshire, to deliver the key infrastructure required to underpin proposed housing development, and additional funds to increase the supply of affordable housing.  This funding is comprised of £150 million for infrastructure, £60 million for affordable housing and £5 million capacity funding. 

The additional funding will support Oxfordshire’s ambition to plan for and support the delivery of up to 100,000 new homes across Oxfordshire between 2011 and 2031 to address the county’s housing shortage and expected economic growth.  This level of housing growth is that identified by the Oxfordshire Strategic Housing Market Assessment 2014, and is consistent with that planned for in existing and emerging Oxfordshire Local Plans. 

The Deal also includes a proposed package of planning “freedoms and flexibilities” to help Oxfordshire to plan collectively for the long-term, sustainable development of the county by offering some protection from the risk of unplanned speculative development for the duration of development of a joint spatial plan and early years of its implementation. 

If approved by all constituent authorities, confirmation, in writing, will go to the Secretary of State along with submission of the agreed Delivery Plan.

The Deal brings with it additional funds for Oxfordshire.  It is proposed that Oxfordshire County Council acts as the Accountable Body for the deal and provides relevant reports to the Growth Board on a quarterly basis.

Following decisions from Government expected on 5 and 7 February, the Housing and Growth Deal Delivery Plan as well as a full report for the Cabinet meeting will be published. 

Cabinet is being asked to recommend Council to approve the Oxfordshire Housing and Growth Delivery Plan together with associated detailed recommendations to be set out in the report. 

Cabinet considered the report of the head of partnership and insight.  This recommended that the council signed up to the Housing and Growth Deal for Oxfordshire and approved the submission of a delivery plan to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. 

The growth deal offered by the ministry was to all six principal councils in Oxfordshire, requiring them to work together to plan for and support the delivery of up to 100,000 new homes up to 2031.  These homes would be planned for through a joint statutory spatial plan and spread across the county.  In return, the government would provide £150 million infrastructure funding across a five-year period, £60 million for affordable housing, and a further £5 million capacity funding.  The ministry had also offered planning freedoms and flexibilities for a limited period.  These included a reduced housing land supply requirement of three years rather than five years, and a housing delivery test based on objectively-assessed housing need figures rather than the strategic market housing assessment figures. 

Cabinet considered the council’s options:

1.    agree the deal as offered

2.    agree the deal subject to conditions

3.    reject the deal

The leader reported that following negotiations with the ministry and the other Oxfordshire councils, the deal as offered would bring benefits for South Oxfordshire and he believed the council could sign the deal.  Cabinet concurred, believing that the infrastructure funding and the planning flexibilities were welcomed, although it was recognised that further work was required on the detail.  The scope of the joint statutory spatial plan was a matter for the councils to determine.  Cabinet considered that the joint statutory spatial plan should not allocate housing sites, this was a matter for each district council’s local plan.  Cabinet believed that the apportionment of affordable housing funds between the other Oxfordshire councils would need to be on a fair and equitable basis, and the assessment of the council’s housing delivery performance should be against planning permissions, not homes built. 

RECOMMENDED to Council to:

(a)      agree to the Oxfordshire Housing and Growth Deal (the Deal) (attached as Appendix 1 to the report of the Head of Partnership and Insight to Cabinet on 12 February 2018);

(b)      agree the Delivery Plan (attached as Appendix 2 to the report of the Head of Partnership and Insight to Cabinet on 12 February 2018) as the basis for the Deal; noting that elements will be updated as detailed work programmes develop;

(c)       delegate authority to the Chief Executive, in consultation with the Leader and the Growth Board, to make minor changes to the Delivery Plan that may be required to secure agreement with Government;

(d)      delegate authority to the Chief Executive, in consultation with Leader and the Growth Board, to agree the Year 1 affordable housing delivery programme, phasing and processes specified in the Delivery Plan;

(e)      appoint Oxfordshire County Council as the accountable body in respect of the Oxfordshire Housing and Growth Deal;

(f)        delegate authority to the Chief Executive, in consultation with the Leader and the Growth Board, to review the terms of reference of the Growth Board and agree any amendments and any appropriate inter-authority agreements required to support the Delivery of the Housing and Growth Deal;

(g)      delegate authority to the Chief Executive, in consultation with the Leader to take any other decisions arising from agreement to the Oxfordshire Housing and Growth Deal, until the revised terms of reference of the Growth Board are in place; and

(h)      agree to participate in the preparation of a Joint Statutory Spatial Plan (JSSP) for Oxfordshire in accordance with the timescales set out in the Delivery Plan and in accordance with Section 28 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, the milestones for progressing the JSSP being contingent on Government delivering the Planning Freedoms and Flexibilities as described in the Delivery Plan.