Nine new council homes have been built on the site of a former builder’s yard in Oxford, with the allocations team beginning the process of letting the homes to applicants on the housing register.
The new homes, situated on Glanville Road, were developed by Cantay Estates and handed over to the Council on 6 August.
The development consists of three four-bedroom houses and a block of six flats, consisting of two one-bedroom and four two-bedroom flats.
The houses and one-bedroom flats will be let at social rent, while the two-bedroom flats will be let at an affordable rent.
Cllr Diko Blackings, cabinet member for affordable housing, housing security and housing the homeless, said: ‘Oxford needs homes and in particular it needs affordable homes. We’re committed to reducing the systemic inequality produced by a broken housing market and improving opportunities for our residents. Each new council home makes a life-changing difference to people’s lives.’
The homes will be allocated to a mix of council tenants on the transfer list and other families in housing need.
The social rent properties will be let at £446 a month for the flats and between £743 and £749 a month for the houses, while the affordable rent flats will be let at £910 a month.
Median monthly private rents in Oxford in 2020/21 were £1,043 for one-bed and £1,250 for two-bed homes, according to the Office for National Statistics.
In related news, over £20bn has been lent to help people into homeownership since the start of the Help to Buy scheme, with recent figures showing a record number of people buying a home through the scheme last year.
Photo by Hannah Petersen