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Councils to take positive steps to represent communities despite concerns with Inspectors’ Local Plan decision

Published Wednesday 8 October 2025

South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse District Councils have written an open letter in which they have stated the Planning Inspectors’ conclusions on their Joint Local Plan were unwarranted and lacking coherent explanation.

The open letter is in reply to a Planning Inspectors’ letter published last week, which recommended the councils withdraw their Joint Local Plan from the examination process based on a single issue – the ‘duty to co-operate’ with Oxford city.

In their response, the councils have defended the processes carried out to develop the plan. They go on to explain to the Inspectors that any decision on whether to withdraw the plan from examination would need to be taken at full Council meetings, in December at the earliest.

Here are some of the key issues the councils have raised in their response to the Inspectors:

  • The letter contains errors, for example, the Inspectors referred to South and Vale being in the “Oxfordshire Housing Market Area” when deciding if there were strategic matters to engage with neighbours on. But housing market areas are no longer part of how housing need is calculated and haven’t been for some years.
  • The Inspectors said things that “could affect Oxford” count as a Strategic Matter. The law says a strategic matter that requires cooperation must have (or would have) a significant impact on two or more planning areas. The Inspectors did not explain what those significant impacts actually are (not just ‘could’ be) on Oxford and the areas of South and/or Vale arising from what the joint local plan proposes.
  • The Inspectors relied on Oxford’s (now withdrawn) Local Plan 2040, which had claimed there was a shortfall in housing supply. But that was before taking into account the 6,780 homes committed in the Joint Local Plan in South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse for Oxford’s unmet need. Using the government’s Standard Method for calculating housing numbers – which the Inspectors of Oxford’s plan instructed Oxford to do – Oxford’s need was already covered.
  • The Inspectors appear to have misunderstood the housing numbers, saying “it should have been obvious” that there was a reasonable prospect of additional Oxford unmet need in later years. But the evidence showed the Joint Local Plan (and partners’ plans) fully accommodated Oxford’s unmet needs up to 2040.
  • The Inspectors downplayed work led by Oxfordshire County Council in 2023 showing that Oxford’s unmet need was fully addressed, favouring a note by Oxford City Council which said it wasn’t.

Despite the significant concerns with the Inspectors’ conclusions, the councils’ leaders have both committed to take all reasonable steps to ensure that future development in the areas remains sustainable, appropriate and well-planned.

Cllr David Rouane, Leader of South Oxfordshire District Council, said: “I’m dismayed that after several years of diligent, careful and collaborative hard work, our positive, innovative Joint Local Plan that works towards genuinely sustainable growth, could be undone by Inspectors’ conclusions based on out-of-date policy and misinterpreted legislation. I am not aware of another emerging local plan in Oxfordshire that so encompasses and embraces the vision set out in the Oxfordshire Strategic Vision, which all our councils signed up to, as our Joint Local Plan.”

Cllr Bethia Thomas, Leader of Vale of White Horse District Council, said: “It’s very disappointing that positive and constructive approaches to planning development could be undermined by the Inspectors’ letter. We will consider very carefully the many implications of the different options ahead of us, and it will be for all Members of both councils to decide which next step is in the best interests of our residents and our districts – they will be at the heart of whatever we decide.”

Joint Local Plan background information

Over the past four years, South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse district councils have worked tirelessly together to prepare new planning policies in an innovative, forward-looking Joint Local Plan to guide sustainable development across both districts.

The Joint Local Plan was developed through extensive consultation and deep engagement with our residents, community groups, neighbouring authorities, developers, infrastructure providers and government agencies. It gained unanimous cross-party support at both councils before submission for examination in December 2024, a rare level of political alignment that demonstrated shared commitment to a plan-led future for South and Vale’s communities.

Despite this, the Inspectors examining the Joint Local Plan wrote to South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse District Councils on 26 September 2025 following Stage 1 of the Joint Local Plan Examination Hearing Sessions. This letter advised the councils withdraw the plan from examination, citing a single technical matter, the Duty to Cooperate, specifically with Oxford City Council. Their letter is available in the Examination Library (ID10). On 1 October the councils issued a joint Press Release, available here: South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse.

On 6 October the councils wrote to the Planning Inspectors about their letter – the letter is available to view on the Councils’ website.