Cherwell's Local Plan needs 20,042 homes by 2042 but the district holds only 3.1 years of land supply, and the government has designated it over appeal losses.

Cherwell District Council is trying to get a Local Plan adopted while it can only demonstrate 3.1 years of housing land supply against the five the government requires. That single gap explains most of what is happening to planning in Banbury and Bicester, including why the council keeps losing at appeal and why the government has now formally designated it.

The Local Plan: 20,042 homes to 2042

The Cherwell Local Plan Review 2042 was published as a Proposed Submission version in December 2024 and is now at examination. The first week of hearing sessions ran from 16 February 2026 in the Council Chamber at 39 Castle Quay, Banbury, addressing the matters the inspectors set out in a letter of 10 October 2025. Sessions were live streamed with recordings published daily.

The plan’s central figure is 20,042 homes between 2020 and 2042, an average of 911 a year. That is not the same as what the district needs.

How Cherwell's housing requirement was calculated, Local Plan Review 2042
ComponentHomes
Previous standard method, 2020 to 20242,921
Current standard method, 706 a year for 18 years12,708
Cherwell's own need15,629
Oxford's unmet need carried forward4,400
Total need, 2020 to 204220,029
Plan requirement (Policy COM 1)20,042
Planned supply, including contingency24,587

Source: Cherwell Local Plan Review 2042 Proposed Submission, Tables 1 and 2 and Policy COM 1.

4,400 of those homes are Oxford’s, not Cherwell’s. The district committed years ago to taking a share of Oxford’s unmet housing need, and that commitment is now baked into the requirement. It is the reason the plan’s numbers look large for a district of this size.

The plan also acknowledges that the government’s revised standard method could push Cherwell’s need to 1,095 homes a year, or 24,090 over the plan period, and that government has said the planned requirement must be within 200 homes a year of that level for the plan to proceed. The council’s own examination documents note the requirement meets 81.5% of the local housing need figure of 1,118 a year, calculated under the practice guidance published on 12 December 2024, which clears the 80% threshold in NPPF paragraph 234(a) by a margin of one and a half points.

Where the homes go

Cherwell Local Plan housing supply by place, 2020 to 2042 Horizontal bar chart of 24,587 homes. Bicester 7,749, Banbury 6,477, the Partial Review sites for Oxford's unmet need 4,400, rural areas 2,338, Heyford Park 1,601, windfall projection 1,400 and Kidlington with Woodstock 622. Bicester takes more than Banbury for the first time. Bicester takes more of the plan than Banbury does Planned housing supply 2020 to 2042, total 24,587 homes. Source: Cherwell Local Plan Review 2042, Policy COM 1. Bicester 7,749 Banbury 6,477 Partial Review sites 4,400, for Oxford's unmet need Rural areas 2,338 Heyford Park 1,601 Windfall projection 1,400, at 100 a year from 2027 Kidlington and Woodstock 622 4,477 of these homes were already completed between 2020 and 2024. New allocations in this plan are modest: 600 east of Bloxham Road in Banbury (phase 2), 450 south-east of Woodstock, 170 at Calthorpe Street in Banbury and 565 in rural allocations, plus an extension of 1,500 homes at North West Bicester.

The biggest single allocation is North West Bicester Eco-Town, Policy BIC H1: 7,500 dwellings on 549 hectares with at least 10 hectares of employment land and at least 3,500 jobs. Only 3,200 of those 7,500 are expected to be built inside the plan period; the remaining 4,300 come after 2042. The plan adds 1,500 homes to the existing site to get there.

On affordable housing, the plan’s viability work supports 30% in Banbury and Bicester and 35% on all sites that meet Cherwell’s own housing needs, required on any scheme of ten homes or more.

The supply problem

The council’s own Annual Monitoring Report 2025, which went to committee on 2 December 2025, sets out the position at 31 March 2025. It is not comfortable reading.

Cherwell five-year housing land supply at 31 March 2025
AssessmentAnnual requirementDeliverable supplyYears
Cherwell's own needs1,168.655,0634.3
Oxford's unmet need (Partial Review)810.61,0601.3
Combined1,979.256,1233.1

Cherwell used to publish those two positions separately. Following 2024 appeal decisions and a High Court judgment, it now has to combine them, and combining them is what turns a marginal 4.3 years into 3.1. The Oxford commitment, in other words, is not just a number on a page: it is the thing that tips the district below the threshold.

Below five years, the presumption in favour of sustainable development applies, and speculative applications on unallocated land become much harder to refuse.

Completions have fallen. The district recorded 717 net completions in 2024/25, down 88 on the year before, which the monitoring report attributes mainly to a slowdown in Bicester as Kingsmere finished and the next sites had not yet come forward. Between 2011 and 2025 the district built 13,834 homes: 38% at Banbury, 29% at Bicester and 33% elsewhere. In 2024/25 alone the split was 57% Banbury, 11% Bicester. Only 20% of last year’s homes were on previously developed land.

The designation

On 15 June 2026 the government designated Cherwell District Council for the quality of its decision-making on major planning applications.

The trigger is an appeal statistic. Over the two years from April 2023 to March 2025, 11% of the council’s major planning decisions were overturned at appeal. The government’s threshold is 10%.

The consequence is direct: anyone submitting a major development application in Cherwell can now choose to send it to the Planning Inspectorate instead of the council. The council says it projects falling below 10% by the end of the current monitoring period.

Councillor Lesley McLean, the council leader, called the decision “disappointing and, frankly, frustrating”, saying the government “appears more interested in judging Cherwell’s past performance than recognising the progress being made today”.

What is in the pipeline

Bicester Garrison, Site A. The Home Office told the council on 25 June 2026 that it intends to open a temporary accommodation centre for up to 1,250 asylum seekers at a Ministry of Defence site near Bicester. The government is using the Urgent Crown Development route, which compresses response times and reduces the normal consultation requirements. The council wrote to the Home Secretary on 30 June and again on 29 July 2026, asking for meaningful consultation, extra security and policing, an infrastructure impact assessment, healthcare and transport provision, and funding to manage the local impact. Questions were raised at Full Council on 20 July. Councillor McLean said communities “affected by proposals of this scale must be given the opportunity to have their voices heard”.

Wroxton Motocross Track. Following the council’s executive meeting of June 2026, new planning controls are proposed at the site.

Upper Heyford PFAS. The council leader has called for urgent government support over possible land and water contamination at Upper Heyford, the former airbase now being built out as Heyford Park. It matters for planning because Heyford Park carries 1,601 homes in the emerging plan.

The thing that changes all of this in 2028

On 16 July 2026 the government confirmed that Oxfordshire and West Berkshire’s seven councils will be replaced by three unitary authorities from 1 April 2028. Cherwell District Council will cease to exist, and whichever unitary inherits north Oxfordshire will inherit the Local Plan, the land supply position and the designation with it.

Where to look things up

Cherwell is not on the Idox system most councils use. Its planning register is a bespoke application at planningregister.cherwell.gov.uk, with its own search. Committee papers, agendas and decisions are on modgov.cherwell.gov.uk. Note the host: the more obvious cherwell.moderngov.co.uk does not work.

Checked on 9 August 2026. What gets permission and where feeds straight into what homes are worth in Banbury and Bicester, and the growth sites are the reason for most of the road schemes in the district.