Planning in Oxfordshire

Explaining the complex planning arrangements in the county.

27 January 2016

oxfordshire planning framework cover The Oxfordshire district and city councils are responsible for strategic planning, using a mandatory ‘duty-to-cooperate’. This puts their Local Plans at the heart of strategic economic, social and environmental development planning. However non-statutory agencies – Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) – have now been created.

Led by the private sector and with local government participation the Oxfordshire LEP has formulated a Strategic Economic Plan (SEP) for Oxfordshire. This process was not subject to wider community consultation and was separate from the preparation of Local Plans.

The LEP is powerful as it links strategic economic planning to central government and EU funding for strategic investments. To help understand the complexities of these planning arrangements OCS has produced an analysis of current and emerging arrangements. The (lengthy) report can be downloaded here.