New plan aims to unblock house building holdups and take back control of planning
11/06/2025
Cherwell is 5,017 houses short of the government target despite having 8,000 waiting to be built
A new Housing Delivery Action Plan has been approved for the Cherwell District, to speed-up the delivery of new homes being built and to try to regain control of the planning process locally.
Currently there are 8,000 houses where planning permission has been granted, but where construction hasn’t yet started.
Because of this these houses don’t count towards the government’s target for our area, leaving the Cherwell District with a deficit of 5,017 new homes over the next five years. Until the issue is resolved planning rules state there is a “presumption in favour” for applications to build, whether they are on land agreed by local people, or not.
The Housing Delivery Action Plan, which was agreed by the Council’s Executive last night, aims to address the issues which are delaying delivery of the properties where permission has already been granted.
The Assistant Director for Planning and Development, David Peckford, told the meeting there were a number of areas internally where they were looking at efficiencies in the process, but external factors, such as the delivery of services to the new sites, also played a big part in the delays.
He said: “It’s about continuing the joint work with the Growth and Economy team and the Area Oversite groups who are engaging with service providers and others to help address some of the obstacles…
“Whether that’s the electricity companies or the County Council (as the Highways authority), it’s about ensuring close working with the [Area Oversite groups] to continue that dialogue and have specific discussions with those service providers on those specific blocks to housing delivery.”
Published: by the Banbury FM News Team
