Oxford encapsulates UK housing challenge

It is the city of dreaming spires, ivory towers and an ancient seat of learning, but in recent times Oxford has gained the more dubious title of Britain's most unaffordable place to live.

As housing emerges as a key policy battleground in the UK general election, the city's rocketing property prices, acute shortage of homes - and the vexed question of where new ones should be built - are resonating in local campaigns.

"We can't get teachers and nurses because they simply can't afford to live here," says Layla Moran, the Liberal Democrat candidate in the Conservative-held marginal seat of Oxford West and Abingdon. "[But] the opposition to building on the green belt here is huge. It could decide the election."

About 100,000 new homes are required in Oxfordshire by 2031, according to a study by local councils - a 40 per cent expansion of the current stock.

Despite warnings that failure to act could hurt the region's high-tech economy and public services, there remains local resistance to development, particularly on the scenic patchwork of meadows and pastures in and around the city.

Hilary Ketchum, a mother-of-one in the village of Botley, west of Oxford, bought her home a year-and-a-half ago for about £250,000. She expresses the ambivalence of many voters.

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This captures the challenge for the next government: balancing massive homebuilding targets, pledged by the major parties and aimed at reviving aspirations of a property-owning democracy, with conservation of Britain's prized countryside and historic towns.

Under-supply caused the average house price in Oxford to rise by nearly 10 per cent in 2014 to £426,720, which at 16.1 times the local median annual income was the highest multiple in the country, according to academic Danny Dorling.

In affluent north Oxford, homes that a generation ago housed middle-class families and academics now fetch prices more in line with London. One estate agent in Summertown advertises a seven-bedroom mansion for £4m, with two and three-bedroom houses in developments starting at £285,000.

While many would-be buyers are frozen out by the need for a 10 per cent deposit, workers and families on low incomes increasingly struggle to pay soaring rents, says Miranda Shaw of Affordable Oxford, a campaign group. This partly explains the 45,000 commuters who clog up the roads and trains each day travelling into town from the surrounding areas.

At a hustings for Oxford's two parliamentary seats, resentment at the situation boils over - with much ire targeted at the city's most venerable institution.

"Who is going to take on the university? Otherwise your talk is pointless as they own all the land around here," says one audience member. Others point to wealthy buyers leaving expensive homes empty, and how only 70 dwellings - none of which "affordable" - were built in the city in the 12 months to last April.

Yet getting shovels in the ground relies to a large extent on co-operation between the county's five local authorities.

<>Plans by Oxford City Council for 4,000 homes outside its boundaries were rejected by South Oxfordshire district council, which argues that the city should first consider a golf course and former greyhound stadium for development. This month it also pulled out of a review of the green belt, saying it "should be the last place we are looking at for housing".

About three-quarters of the green belt - which at 33,728 hectares covers 13 per cent of the county - is in agricultural use, while one-fifth is at risk of flooding.

"Oxford has a green noose around its neck and can't move without getting permission from the other councils," says Sally Copley, the Labour candidate for Oxford West.

The two leading candidates for the seat tread a delicate line in championing their parties' flagship policies while soothing fears about urban sprawl.

Nicola Blackwood, the incumbent Conservative who is defending a 177-vote majority, says the answer lies in giving a greater say to neighbourhoods, dismissing the charge that more local control would lead to an impasse. "A lot of people's resistance isn't about having more homes in their area - they just want to be involved from the start."

Ms Moran of the Lib Dems argues against piecemeal development on the green belt and wants reform of the National Planning Policy Framework to "tackle the idea that sustainable development is all about growth".

But she shies away from the suggestion, made by a canvassing activist, for a cap on the prices of homes in specific new developments, calculated as a multiple of a buyer's income.

Some voters like Kath Cattell, a pensioner from North Hinksey, remain sceptical.

"We are overpopulated and the green belt is disappearing. They need to restrict immigration and benefits."

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