The three schemes, located in Cowley, East Oxford, and Wood Farm, will repurpose underused council land and a vacant former timber yard. These developments aim to provide much-needed affordable housing.
The developments include Kersington Crescent, which will feature 28 new flats on a site currently occupied by underused council garages, offering 20 homes for social rent and eight for affordable rent. Construction will be managed by OX Place, the council’s wholly owned housing company. An application for a Homes England grant is intended.
At 474 Cowley Road, 47 one-bedroom flats will be built on the former Powells timber yard site. This includes a refurbished existing house by the entrance, which will be purchased upon completion from the developer. All these flats are designated for social rent and will serve as temporary accommodation for single homeless adults, with additional support provided. A grant from Homes England is also being sought.
Additionally, 26 Stubbs Avenue will see two new council homes for social rent built on the site of a council property destroyed by fire in March 2025. A grant application will be made for the one additional home.
Collectively, these schemes will provide 78 new affordable homes. The council is directly delivering or acquiring homes on brownfield land sites that are currently vacant, underused, or in need of redevelopment. The homes will be built to modern energy-efficiency standards, incorporating features such as air-source heat pumps and solar panels.
These approvals are part of Oxford City Council’s broader initiative to increase the supply of genuinely affordable housing. The council’s four-year Affordable Housing Supply Programme targets the delivery of over 1,600 affordable homes, with at least 850 designated for social rent.
The urgency is highlighted by the Oxford City Council Housing Register, which shows more than 4,000 families are waiting for social housing. Currently, 4,068 applicants are registered, with demand significantly exceeding supply. Approximately half of the need is for one-bedroom homes (2,035), while two and three-bedroom homes account for 1,761 applications (43%). The council receives an average of 160 new applications monthly.
Oxford faces significant housing pressures, with high living costs making affordable housing difficult to secure. The Centre for Cities’ Cities Outlook 2026 report identified Oxford as the UK’s least affordable city. ONS figures from August 2026 indicate average private rents in Oxford reached £1,963 per month. In 2025/26, over 500 households at risk of homelessness were placed in temporary accommodation, and 996 households were registered due to overcrowding.
