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You are here: home > News >  Press releases >  Archive >  May 2010

Release date: May 28, 201

Council receives formal statement from the Secretary of State...

Late yesterday, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Eric Pickles wrote to all council leaders highlighting the government’s commitment to rapidly abolish regional spatial strategies and return decision making powers on housing and planning to local councils.  This includes decisions on the amount of housing within individual local authority areas. 

This is the first formal statement from the Secretary of State regarding the abolition of regional spatial strategies and heralds a new era in which local authorities will have the freedom to plan effectively for the needs of their districts and be able to take account of the wishes of local communities on matters such as the numbers and location of new housing.

In the light of the letter (See attached document on the right), the leader of the council has decided to withdraw the core strategy from the agenda of the Cabinet meeting on the 3 June.  This will allow time to consider the full impact of Mr Pickles’ statement and will avoid any decisions being taken that are later proved to be unsound or unnecessary.  As a consequence, the Scrutiny Committee meeting scheduled for the 1 June to consider the core strategy has also been cancelled.

Cllr Ann Ducker, Leader of South Oxfordshire District Council, said:

“I am delighted that the new Government is fulfilling its promise to review the planning system so quickly.  I have long argued that decisions about housing numbers are best made at a local level and at long last it looks as if we will get the opportunity to do this.

I have carefully considered whether or not we should press ahead with next week’s meeting.  Although the future is uncertain, I am now confident that the changes will happen sufficiently quickly to make any decisions under the existing rules redundant in no time.  Given the strong feelings of residents over some of the proposals in the core strategy, I see no value in having a potentially highly charged meeting to debate proposals that are unlikely to stand the test of time.

I want to stress that the council remains committed to providing new housing in South Oxfordshire to support jobs growth, town centre regeneration and to deliver affordable housing for those who cannot enter the housing market unaided.  We have major developments in hand at Great Western Park and Ladygrove East, Didcot, Fairmile Hospital, Cholsey and Chinnor Cement Works. 

I shall wait with interest the Secretary of State’s further announcement that he promises in the letter.  At that time I hope we will have sufficient clarity that I can issue another statement setting out how the council plans to move forward with its planning framework for the next 20 years.