Oxford council leader Susan Brown shares New Year's message

As another busy year draws to a close, I wanted to take time to reflect on some of the things that we have done at Oxford City Council to improve housing, tackle the climate emergency, work with Oxford’s communities, and create a local economy that benefits everyone.

In housing, we made significant progress by delivering three major OX Place developments at The Curve, Bridges Cross and Warren Crescent, resulting in 84 affordable homes.

We also announced that half of the homes at Barton Park will be affordable – beyond our initial 40 per cent plan.

We believe everyone should have a good quality home, which is why we introduced a selective licensing scheme to drive up standards for private rented homes. We are now processing nearly 11,000 licence applications.

READ MORE: Sports shop at Oxford's Covered Market is to close

We put preventing homelessness at the heart of our housing services and allocated a budget of £1.7 million to combat rough sleeping and single homelessness in Oxford.

Councillor Susan Brown. (Image: Contributed)

In our efforts to tackle the climate emergency, we secured £8.6 million to improve energy efficiency in Oxford homes, including retrofitting 300 council homes.

Our Superhub at Redbridge Park & Ride helped to charge 32,000 vehicles in its first year – a fantastic achievement. We also celebrated the 50th anniversary of Oxford's Park and Ride network and supported the installation of 266 new bike parking spaces, encouraging more sustainable transport choices.

As part of our work to support our communities, we started the redevelopment of East Oxford Community Centre, secured funding for a new Youth Hub in Blackbird Leys, and provided free or low-cost holiday activities for young people.

We continued to support local artists and community groups to put on May Morning and the Oxford Christmas Lights Festival and celebrated the coronation of King Charles III with street parties across the city.

Tree Cathedral at the Oxford Christmas Lights Festival. (Image: Noor Qurashi)

Finally, we took steps to make Oxford's economy work for everyone.

We celebrated over 120 employers paying the Oxford Living Wage, ensuring fair wages for our city's workforce. The 'Meanwhile in Oxfordshire...' project saw affordable business space provided for 100 organisations - creating 200 jobs.

We also approved a multi-million-pound project to revitalise the Covered Market and started trialling later opening hours.

The trial was well received and breathed new life into one of our beloved local markets. As a result, more people visited our city centre during summer and autumn, supporting our local economy by spending locally.

These are a few examples of what we have done as a city council.

I’m proud of what we’ve achieved, proud of our city and look forward to doing more to meet Oxford’s challenges next year.