Active place-making - the barton park joint venture

摘要

Oxford has a dynamic economy and has seen a rapid growth in both jobs and the resident population over the past 15 years. The prospects for the next decade are equally positive. On current plans, the next few years will see the biggest transformation of the city since the advent of motor manufacturing in 1912. By 2021, the population is forecast to be well over 160,000, and the county-wide Strategic Housing Market Assessment (SHMA) completed in 2014 indicated a need for between 24,000 and 32,000 new homes for the city by 2031. Economic growth has been accompanied by a rapid deterioration in the affordability of housing, both to purchase and for private rent. House price data for 1997-2000 showed that there was already one area in North Oxford where the average house price exceeded ten times average earnings; by 2010-2013, this multiple applied to more than half of the city. There is now nowhere in Oxford where average house prices are less than five times average earnings. According to a 2014 study, 'Oxford now has the least affordable housing in the country'. The private rented sector has followed the rise in house prices, and Centre for Cities research places Oxford private sector rents at the very top of the affordability league table.