THOUSANDS of council residents across Oxford will be offered improvements to their homes under a £21.3m scheme.

This year Oxford City Council is planning to roll out what it has named the Oxford Standard to all of its council houses – modernising kitchens, bathrooms, security and waste systems.

It is on top of the Government’s Decent Homes Standard and will potentially affect 7,800 homes.

City council head of housing Stephen Clarke said it would tie in with the drive to make homes more environmentally friendly by insulating and installing new heating systems, in the hope that residents energy bills can be reduced.

He told the Oxford Mail: “The Decent Homes Standard is not what we are aspiring to, but rather what we feel is a much better standard.

“An example is that the Government does not require every bathroom to have a shower, but that is something that people want.

“The Decent Homes Standard is also very light on energy efficiency and things have really changed since it was developed. It is about bringing all our housing stock up to a modern-day standard.”

No tenants would be forced to accept the improvements, he added.

The Oxford Standard was developed with help from a “scrutiny panel” of councillors and council house tenants and is part of the council’s proposed strategy for the next 10 years.

It will add extra guidelines to the Government’s Decent Homes Standard, introduced in 2000 to ensure that all social housing stock met a specific level.

The four criteria are that homes must be free of health and safety hazards; in a reasonable state of repair; be reasonably insulated and have reasonably modern kitchens, bathrooms and boilers.

At a meeting of the city council’s executive board tomorrow, senior councillors have been recommended to approve the new proposals.

Mr Clarke said it would likely take 20 years for the new standards to reach all of the council’s houses, as this was how long the new repair cycles for kitchens was. It will be done on an area-by-area basis.

The council has set aside more than £5m every year for the scheme for the next four years as part of its capital spending programme.

Mr Clarke added: “The Oxford Standard will cost us more than the Government standard, but that is why we have budgeted more.”

THE OXFORD STANDARD

* Bathrooms – bath grab rails, shower fittings, choice of glass panel or curtain rail, extractor fan, tiled, choice of mixer taps. Replaced every 25 years. 

* Kitchens – tenants consulted on layout and facility, extractor fan, hard-wired carbon monoxide and smoke detectors, gas and electric provision for cookers, replaced every 20 years. 

* Security – window locks to all accessible windows, gated side and back alleys, fencing to side and rear of homes, high-quality front doors with spy holes, improved lighting in shared areas of blocks of flats and at front and rear entrance doors of homes, better communal areas.

* Heating and Energy Efficiency – solar panels, wall and loft insulation, double glazing.

* Environment – more parking provision (where feasible), securing the bin storage area (where feasible), increasing number of dog waste bins.