Oxford North Planning Application: Statement to West Area Planning Committee
Summertown St Margaret’s Neighborhood Forum, Wolvercote Neighbourhood Forum; Oxford Civic Society
Good evening. My name is Dr Bob Colenutt. I am today speaking on behalf of the joint objection to the Oxford North scheme by the Summertown St Margaret’s Neighbourhood Forum, the Wolvercote Neighbourhood Forum and the Oxford Civic Society. I am also a lecturer in Planning at Oxford Brookes.
The decision facing the Committee today is about how much land value created by the Oxford North development will go to the landowners and developers and how much to those on the housing waiting list
The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee this year concluded that it was common place for developers and landowners to ‘game’ the viability system. In other words use viability assessment to reduce the amount of land value available to meet affordable housing obligations in Local Plans. This is what is happening here.
For the landowners/developers and their consultants it is their job to reduce planning obligations ; If they did not do it they would not be in their posts. But for us and council it is different. Our job is ensure that communities and those on the housing waiting list are not taken advantage of at the expense of landowners/developers and their advisers.
Let’s be clear the value created at Oxford North is created by the wider community – the grant of planning consent alone will raise land value by x 100, enhanced by publicly funded infrastructure and Homes England grant and by its location near a rail station and the A40, A44, A34 junction. But who will get the benefit?
We say, and our experts agree, the scheme is undervalued and profits are underestimated robbing the City of social housing and support for public series which we desperately need.
Cala Homes at Wolvercote Mill today are selling new 3 bed homes for £695k and townhouses for £1.125M. At Barton Park Mosaics today are marketing 2 bed apartments for £380k; 3 bed houses for 799k. This is today. What will prices look like when Oxford North is built out? Everyone knows that the Oxford housing market is booming. The developers are deliberately under-estimating both the absolute values of property in North Oxford, and the long term value growth by using average south east England property prices.
Profits in Financial Viability Assessment are a measure of risk. A high risk scheme aims for 20% profits on cost, a low risk scheme much lower. The risk here is low – because of the Oxford property market, infrastructure works, and government grants,. Yet the profit target is 16.5% profit on value. If it was just a few percentage points lower (as it was in earlier options) they could meet their affordable housing obligations in full and return a large profit sum to St John’s College.
Local public services will be under severe pressure from this scheme. No funding by the developer is offered for schools, health services or policing.
The Committee report and the developers both say don’t worry we can rely on the Review Mechanism to achieve the aim of 50% affordable housing. BUT the Review builds in a 16.5 per cent profit which the developers calculate not us. It will be their internal calculation. Nor can we see a local housing market research mechanism built in to check future values..
What is need is a truly independent review of the viability of this scheme – not from the club of London property consultants but from those experts who are on the side of the housing waiting list.
If we get this decision it wrong, it will used against the city in other sites and by other educational institutions and in the up-coming Local Plan examination. We cannot allow this gaming of the system to be established in Oxford - in our city.
This is why you must defer until the viability job is done properly - not for us but those in desperate need of social housing and those sitting homeless on the streets of our city.
