Affordable Housing Built on Glebe Land

June 2009

The Oxfordshire Rural Housing Partnership has completed its first Affordable Housing development built on land owned by the Oxford Diocesan. The scheme of 14 homes, 13 for rent and 1 for homebuy (previously known as shared-ownership, has achieved a rating of ‘very good’ on the eco-homes standard.

It is hoped that the success of these homes, which were built in response to a Housing Needs Survey carried out by the Oxfordshire Rural Community Council’s Rural Housing Enabler in 2004, will pave the way to more homes for local families being built on Diocesan land in rural Oxfordshire.

The Bishop of Reading was on hand to open the new scheme. He gave a stirring address in which he praised all elements of the scheme. He noted, “(We need) affordable houses for local people so that people growing up in the communities where their family are, where their friends are, very often where their jobs are, can afford to carry on living in what is their own community.”

Vale resident Geoffrey Jordan commented, “I think the new house is great. We used to live just up the road but the flat was noisy and there was not enough space.”

District Councillor, Richard Farrell, said that in the 25 years he has been on his own Parish Council … “the most common request we receive is for more affordable housing so that the children of the village can, in their turn, bring up their own children with the support of their family and friends.”

“It has taken us ten years and seemingly endless meetings,” Peter Saunders of the Parish Council said, “but when someone says that this is not only a wonderful place to live but they already know most of the people that live here, it brings the term ‘local connection’ to live and makes all the hard work and troubled waters that we had to sail through to get here, worthwhile. We are already starting to think about the next scheme.”

Founded in 2003, the ORHP was established to maximise the opportunities for rural communities across Oxfordshire to benefit from new housing. The ORHP is a partnership between the Oxfordshire Rural Community Council, four District Councils, four Housing Associations, Fry Binks Partnership and Leadbitter Construction with funding support from the Housing Corporation.