Kenrick orders freeze on multi-million pound scrapping of local plan

Councillors in South Oxfordshire are have been ordered not to take the district’s spatial plan back to the drawing board amid warnings the move could jeopardise hundreds of millions of pounds in government infrastructure funding for the county.

Cabinet members at the district last week recommended the council withdraw its Local Plan 2034 blueprint for the area’s development from the examination process so that new-homes figures can be revised downwards and more emphasis placed on sustainability.

However, housing secretary Robert Jenrick this week intervened to issue a holding direction preventing the council’s cabinet from endorsing the move at a meeting that was due to be held today.

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March 25th, 2020, Manchester
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In a letter to the council, Jenrick said: “I hereby direct South Oxfordshire District Council not to take any step in connection with the adoption of the plan, while I consider the matter further.”

The order will remain in force until further notice from the secretary of state.

Moves to scrap the plan followed a change of political leadership at the council from Conservative to Liberal Democrat and Green control in May’s elections. The plan withdrawal is tabled for approval at a full-council meeting later this week.

But a report to cabinet members earlier this month said not proceeding with the housing delivery plans and other measures set out in the Local Plan 2034 could place a question mark over £218m in government Housing Infrastructure Fund (HIF) support secured by Oxfordshire County Council in March.

The deal relates to a selection of infrastructure projects in the South Oxfordshire and the neighbouring Vale of White Horse district.

South Oxfordshire head of planning Emma Baker said a separate county-wide £215m Housing and Growth Deal signed with the government last year, seeking to support the delivery of 100,000 new homes by 2031, would also be at risk if the district’s Local Plan 2034 was withdrawn.

She said the district and Oxford City Council had been required to submit their local plans for examination by April this year as part of the deal, and that the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government was clear about the link between progressing local plans and unlocking funding.

Baker’s report said a letter from secretary of state for housing Robert Jenrick to South Oxfordshire council leader Sue Cooper last month had set out the view that HIF support was “contingent on identified sites coming forward in an adopted local plan” and progress was expected for funding to be accessed.

In relation to the growth deal, Jenrick said: “Should local decisions undermine that framework, the government would be less inclined to provide local infrastructure funding, both now and in the future.”

Baker’s 3 October report to cabinet said that if the government chose to withdraw its HIF funding, Oxfordshire County Council could face abortive costs of £1m in addition to the loss of the £218m.

She added the potential loss of funding associated with the growth deal would be “approximately £145m over the remaining three years”, close-on £60m of which could be infrastructure funding for Vale of White Horse’s planned 4,450-home Valley Park neighbourhood in Didcot.

At their meeting today, South Oxfordshire councillors had been expected to be asked to support withdrawing the Local Plan 2034 so that work can start on an “ambitious” new vision, which has less “excessive” new-homes projections.

The cabinet motion says the current housing target is 5,000 units higher than the district’s identified need while the plan also calls for the release of too much Green Belt land.

Additionally, the motion nodded to the potential funding implications of the decision and calls for MHCLG to be asked to provide financial support for the new local plan, and for other funding opportunities to be explored.

Council leader Cooper said she and her cabinet colleagues had studied detailed matters related to the current draft plan “long and hard over the past few months” and had chosen to make a “clear, decisive and strong” recommendation on the future.

“In making this recommendation, my cabinet has sought to do the right thing, not the easy thing, and we will continue to work positively and constructively in the best interests of all South Oxfordshire residents while also tacking the climate emergency, which we have an enormous responsibility to address,” she said.

The motion also called for revenue expenditure estimated at £2m to be brought forward into the authority’s next medium-term financial plan period to support the creation of a new local plan.

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