New West Oxfordshire estates would have to make 40% of homes affordable, and at least 65% of those social rent. Comments on the plan close Friday 9 October.
Most affordable homes on new West Oxfordshire estates would have to be let at social rent, under a rule in the district’s draft Local Plan. The council wants at least 65% of affordable homes on qualifying developments to be social rent. That is the cheapest kind of rented home, set at 50% to 60% of market rent.
West Oxfordshire District Council set out the proposal in a news release on 2 October. The detail is in Policy DM20 of the draft Local Plan 2043.
Comments on the plan close on Friday 9 October, two days from now.
What the draft policy says
Policy DM20 applies to any development of 10 or more homes, or a site of half a hectare or more. Inside the Cotswolds National Landscape, the trigger drops to five homes.
On those sites, the draft policy requires:
- 40% affordable housing, the same figure everywhere in the district
- at least 65% of those affordable homes as social rent
- the other 35% in tenures with a proven local need, such as shared ownership
- mainly one and two bedroom affordable homes
- affordable homes on site, mixed in with market homes and built to the same standard
Sites in the Oxford Green Belt are the exception. There, the national “Golden Rules” apply instead.
On a site of 100 homes, that means 40 affordable homes. At least 26 of them would be social rent, and no more than 14 would be other affordable types. That is our arithmetic from the policy’s own percentages.
What changes from today
The council’s release says the current Local Plan “generally seeks around two-thirds of affordable housing as affordable rented homes, with the precise mix agreed case by case”. Affordable rent typically means around 80% of market rent.
Two things change under the draft:
- Social rent becomes a fixed minimum. It is no longer left to negotiation on each site. Social rent sits well below affordable rent, at 50% to 60% of market rent.
- One district-wide percentage. The 40% figure replaces the current approach, where the share depends on where the site is.
The draft also says the council will resist any net loss of existing affordable homes. Where social rented homes are knocked down and rebuilt, they must come back as social rent.
Why the council says it is needed
The council gives these figures for the district:
- just over 1,800 households on the housing waiting list
- an estimated 110 extra households a year who cannot afford to buy or rent on the open market
- 352 affordable homes delivered in 2025/26, across all affordable types
The plan itself puts the median house price in West Oxfordshire at £370,000, against a national median of £289,995. That is almost ten times median workplace earnings of £40,331. The plan’s housing needs evidence identifies a need for 5,412 affordable homes between 2025 and 2041, or 338 a year. About 68% of that need is for social rent, which is where the 65% figure comes from.
Councillor Geoff Saul, the council’s executive member for housing, said in the release: “The number of houses in West Oxfordshire has nearly doubled in the past 40 years, yet the number of social rented homes has dropped.”
The council’s leader, Councillor Andy Graham, has also signed a cross-party open letter coordinated by Shelter asking the Prime Minister and Chancellor to prioritise council and social housing in the Autumn Budget.
What it is not
The draft says 40% has been tested through the council’s whole plan viability assessment and found viable across the district. Developers can still argue a site is a special case, but the draft puts the burden on them to prove it with “robust and transparent evidence”.
None of this applies yet. The plan has to pass an independent examination by a planning inspector before the council can adopt it. Until then, applications are judged against the current Local Plan.
What it means for you
If you are on the housing waiting list, or rent privately and struggle with the cost, this is the policy that decides how many cheaper homes future estates around Witney, Carterton and Chipping Norton will include. The three Witney growth areas in the plan are down for about 2,100 homes between them, as we reported in our story on the Local Plan consultation.
If you want to comment, this round is about whether the plan is “sound” and legally compliant, not whether you like it. A comment that says why a policy is or is not justified by the evidence carries most weight with the inspector. Comments go through the council’s consultation platform and close on Friday 9 October.
Our Witney house prices page has the latest Land Registry figures for the district, and new applications are on our Witney planning news page.
Sources
- A housing crisis we cannot ignore: West Oxfordshire pushes for homes people can afford, West Oxfordshire District Council, 2 October 2026 for the waiting list, the 110 households a year, the 352 homes delivered in 2025/26, the current Local Plan’s approach, the quotes and the 9 October closing date.
- Draft Local Plan 2043, Proposed Submission consultation document, August 2026 for Policy DM20 and paragraphs 9.321 to 9.334: the thresholds, the 40% and 65% requirements, the median price and earnings figures, and the 5,412 home need.
- Shelter open letter to the Prime Minister and Chancellor.
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