Councillors urged to reject new housing figures

THE countryside lobbying group, CPRE, is urging councils and councillors to reject new figures for housing needs that the local planning authority has based its revised Local Plan for the district on.

The Strategic Housing Market Assessment – or SHMA – figures, have been used by South Oxfordshire District Council to decide how to meet the new housing target, and have outlined possible options for the allocation of new housing, including a new town between Walllingford and Thame, and building in the Oxford Green Belt.

The SHMA found that far more houses than previously envisaged in the Local Plan (adopted in December 2012) would have to be built in South Oxfordshire, probably including Thame,  to meet demand. SODC had only planned to build 10,600 homes between 2011 and 2027, but the SHMA proposes that between 14,500 and 16,500 are needed by 2031.

The consultation currently being carried out by SODC lists a number of options for distributing the additional housing.

CPRE (Campaign to Protect Rural England) has said that it is concerned that the options identified in the new Plan “……are not ‘options’ at all. We believe that all of the options identified – and more, will be required if SODC are to meet the unrealistic and unsustainable housing targets outlined in the SHMA.

“This would be intensely damaging to the environment and to the amenity of everyone who lives in the District.”

Helen Marshall, CPRE Oxfordshire’s Director, responding to a draft report by its own Consultants questioning the validity of the new SHMAR figures, has said: “The only beneficiaries of the Oxfordshire SHMA are house builders, who will have carte blanche to develop what and where they like (which is high-end housing on Greenfield land – a precious and finite resource). The price will be paid by those who will pay for new infrastructure and services to support this (all of us), and those who depend for decent housing on the regeneration of Oxford and our towns (especially new and lower income households). Balancing these interests is a matter for the local planning process – which the SHMA preempts.”

The public consultation (details HERE) ends on July, 23.

Details of CPRE’s challenge to the SHMAR figures can be found here: http://www.cpreoxon.org.uk/news/current-news/item/2368-new-shma-campaign

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