TALLER buildings and ‘continental-style’ developments could rise up across Oxford under radical plans to tackle the housing crisis.

New draft proposals by the city council would scrap blanket height restrictions and favour developments that use space most efficiently.

Planning chief Alex Hollingsworth stressed historic views of the ‘Dreaming Spires’ in the city centre would be protected but said buildings as high as seven storeys should be looked at in other areas.

It is thought the changes – inspired by how European cities such as Barcelona are planned – could help deliver 10,000 new homes over the next 20 years, up from 7,500 under current rules.

They are part of options put forward for the new Local Plan, the blueprint for development, which will be consulted on this summer.

Oxford Mail:

  • Councillor Alex Hollingsworth

Mr Hollingsworth said: “The need for housing and employment space in Oxford is substantially above supply and the one thing we do not have more of is land.

“What we are trying to do with this Local Plan is balance that need with the need to protect the city’s historic environment and its green spaces.

“So we are looking at intensification – which means getting more out of each bit of land than we have previously.”

He said taller developments would be focused outside the city centre, which are covered by ‘view cones’, and in areas such as Summertown, Headington, Cowley, Blackbird Leys and Littlemore, which are known as ‘district centres’.

Oxford Mail:

In these suburbs, denser buildings could have flats or apartments above shops, community centres and transport hubs on the ground level.

This is common in European cities like Barcelona, Vienna and Berlin and more efficient, Mr Hollingsworth said.

He said: “What we’ve got in Oxford is not a city centre and then suburbs, but actually a set of communities with their own characters.

“This is not about going back to the 1970s, when you had two halves of the city – the university in the centre and industry in Cowley – but creating better links between all these areas.”

But the housing proposals fall short of the 15,000 other councils have called on Oxford to deliver within its boundaries, Mr Hollingsworth admitted.

Neighbouring authorities are already set to shoulder 14,000 homes to help meet demand in the city and the shortfall of another 5,000 could mean they are asked to take on even more.

Last month other council leaders told the city council to ‘pull its weight’ and make more ‘difficult decisions’.

The draft Local Plan proposals also include several controversial sites in the protected Green Belt. These include land between Marston and Summertown, at Pear Tree, St Frideswide’s Farm in Water Eaton, near Redbridge park and east of the A44.

They were previously ruled out by the city council but it will now be arguing that ‘exceptional circumstances’ exist that support building there.

Mr Hollingsworth said changes would also be proposed to make it easier to covert warehouse space into offices.