Go-ahead for 'ground-breaking' development plan

About 3,500 homes are expected to be build adjacent to Culham Science Centre

A plan by two Oxfordshire councils that will outline where building should take place in their districts until 2041 has been agreed.

South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse district councils approved a draft Local Plan that they said would raise housing standards.

It contains several sites already allocated for housing, including thousands of homes on Oxford’s outskirts.

It will need to be approved by a government-appointed planning inspector before it can be formally adopted.

The only site which would see more housing than initially expected is at Dalton Barracks in Shippon, near Abingdon, where the councils plan to build about 2,750 homes.

The authorities said there were “enough new homes in the pipeline already” and so will not need to build on extra greenfield sites.

Other sites include building 3,000 new homes south of Grenoble Road in Oxford.

Another 3,500 are expected to be built adjacent to Culham Science Centre, along with another 1,700 at Berinsfield Garden Village.

The Lib Dem-led South Oxfordshire Council is opposed to building homes on Chalgrove Airfield

Another 1,800 homes are expected to be built at Northfield, just south of Oxford’s Unipart factory, and another 1,100 at Bayswater Brook, near Barton.

But the councils want to stop homes being built on Chalgrove Airfield, where the government agency Homes England wants to build 3,400 homes.

The authorities have said it is “no longer appropriate” to build there.

They said to help with the supply of affordable homes, 40% of new homes will need to be designated in the Vale of White Horse and 50% in South Oxfordshire.

Currently, the required proportions are 35% and 40%, respectively.

Vale council leader Bethia Thomas said the plan was "ground-breaking" and "shows the benefits of a collaborative effort between our two districts".

The authorities share staff and offices.

South Oxfordshire council leader David Rouane said the authorities were "very proud" of the plan and the way they said it would "help us protect and restore nature with ambitious biodiversity net gain requirements".

"But it’s not just aspiration, we’ve done the hard yards of gathering the evidence that this is achievable and viable," he added.