All 61 flats in Chestnut Tower are social rent, let through Oxford's housing register at about 40% of private rents. What is in the block and who gets one.
The first tenants have moved into Chestnut Tower, the nine-storey block at the centre of the Blackbird Leys regeneration, and every one of its 61 flats is for social rent. Oxford City Council announced the move-ins on Thursday 8 October. The homes are being allocated through the council’s housing register.
The council says social rent in Oxford is typically around 40 per cent of what a private landlord would charge for an equivalent home. For comparison, the average Oxford house sold for £471,667 in July, according to the Land Registry; our house prices report has the detail.
What is in the block
The council’s release describes the tower as:
- one, two and three bedroom apartments
- seven homes designed to be accessible for residents with mobility needs
- a private balcony or garden for every home
- “modern, energy-efficient interiors”
Who is getting the homes
More than 40 per cent of the flats are being let to existing tenants of the council or local housing associations who want to downsize or who have been living in overcrowded homes, the council says. Each of those moves frees a home elsewhere for someone on the register.
“Watching the moving vans come and going outside Chestnut Tower this week has been really inspiring, and marks an important moment for the community here in Blackbird Leys,” said Councillor Linda Smith, the council’s cabinet member for housing and communities. “There is a huge, growing need for genuinely affordable homes in our city, so it is fantastic to see 61 brand new social-rent homes being made available to people on our housing register.”
The rest of the scheme
Chestnut Tower is the first completed block of a regeneration that Oxford City Council is delivering with the housing association Peabody and the contractor The Hill Group. Across the whole scheme the council counts 294 affordable homes: 174 for social rent and 120 for shared ownership, with a new community centre, shops, public spaces and better walking and cycling routes.
Progress on the other parts, as the council set it out on 8 October:
- The Aviary, Knights Road: 84 shared ownership homes, more than half of which are now becoming available.
- Cherry Tree Tower: a further 51 social rent homes, under construction and “scheduled by the end of 2027”.
- The community centre: work “is progressing” next door.
The council’s project page gives the longer history. The plans were first announced in April 2019, shaped through workshops run with the design practice Transition by Design and a Leys Community Review Panel of local residents, and planning permission was secured in 2023. The district centre, which includes the “top shops”, will have 210 homes across four blocks; the Knights Road homes come with private gardens, parking and electric vehicle charging.
One date on that page has slipped. It still says the first homes were “due to complete in spring 2026”. The first keys were handed over in October.
What it means for you
- If you are on Oxford’s housing register, the Chestnut Tower flats are being let through it, not by application to the block. The council’s release does not say how many remain unlet.
- If you are an existing council or housing association tenant in an overcrowded home, or wanting to downsize, the council says more than 40 per cent of the flats have gone to tenants in that position.
- Shared ownership at The Aviary on Knights Road is marketed by Peabody; the council’s release says more than half of the 84 homes are now coming forward.
- The next social rent homes in Blackbird Leys are the 51 at Cherry Tree Tower, due by the end of 2027.
- The council’s wider housing finances were the subject of our September story on the £3.5m budget error, and new applications across the city are tracked on our planning news page.
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