Since maintaining and growing employment was significantly dependent on our membership of the European Union perhaps we can now revisit the issue of land use?

The most recent Strategic Housing Market Assessment grossly inflates housing targets since the cost of homes and rents in Oxfordshire encourages people working here to commute rather than live in the County.

Consequently, the idea that there would be a fixed relationship between suggested employment growth and housing required in Oxfordshire was always utter nonsense.

Only social housing and initiatives like housing cooperatives offer homes that are actually affordable for people on average incomes in Oxfordshire.

Current economic conditions mean we can abandon the idea of three urban extensions of south east Oxford, and many other large-scale housing developments on greenfield sites. Oxford need not be growing so fast when areas in the Midlands and the North with greater employment needs and even more brownfield sites are more obvious targets for sustainable development.

Brownfield sites can be used more intensively in Oxfordshire; taller blocks can be built in some places.

It is, after all, vital to preserve agricultural land in the county, to feed people especially through more farmers’ markets offering local food.

But a conservationist approach to land use is also critical for eco-tourism and ‘stay-cations:’

Restoring biodiversity is just as important to tourism as the availability of bed and breakfast accommodation. Preserving and extending our forests will have positive effects on employment, biodiversity, recreation and quality of life.

Simplistic ideas about building our way out of the current recession need to be abandonned: a greener and sustainable strategy involves using the brownfield sites we have and making intelligent use of greenfield sites of all types.

Whether we will have leadership in this direction from our local councils in Oxfordshire remains to be seen.

STEVE DAWE
County press officer
Oxfordshire Green Party