58 garages off Barns Road will make way for 28 council flats, with building due to start in October 2027. Cabinet also approved two homes on a fire-hit Stubbs Avenue site.
A block of 58 council garages at Kersington Crescent in Temple Cowley is to be replaced with 28 affordable flats. Oxford City Council’s Cabinet gave the scheme project approval on Wednesday 21 October.
The plan is set out in a report to Cabinet by the council’s Director of Economy, Regeneration and Sustainability. The notice of decision was published on 22 October.
The same meeting approved two new council homes on the site of a bungalow in Stubbs Avenue that was lost to a fire in March 2025. And two days later, the council marked the point at which its 51-home Northfield Gate scheme in Littlemore reached full height.
What is planned at Kersington Crescent
The site sits just off Barns Road, with three-storey council flats around it and the ARC Oxford business park behind. The report says most of the garages are too small for modern cars and are used for storage, if at all.
The indicative mix in the report is:
| Type | Social rent | Affordable rent | Wheelchair (social rent) | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| One-bedroom flats | 15 | 4 | 2 | 21 |
| Two-bedroom flats | 3 | 4 | 0 | 7 |
| Total | 18 | 8 | 2 | 28 |
The council will build the homes itself, rather than handing the land to a housing association or selling it. It may use OX Place, its own housing company, to manage the development. The cost is in a confidential appendix. The report says Homes England grant will pay for part of it and borrowing for the rest.
Cabinet also recommended that full Council moves £8,280,584 within the housing capital budget into a dedicated budget line for the scheme.
When it would happen
The report’s indicative programme:
| Stage | Date |
|---|---|
| Planning application | February 2027 |
| Planning approval (target) | May 2027 |
| Building work starts | October 2027 |
| Homes finished | July 2029 |
Nothing is decided on planning yet. The report names planning as the biggest risk to the timetable, “due to the inherent constraints of the site”.
Cabinet also agreed to start the legal process of appropriating the land for planning purposes. That involves publishing notices and considering any representations before a further decision. The report says this is to deal with any “residual rights” over the land that could hold up building.
One of 200 garage sites
The council owns about 1,925 garages on 200 sites across the city. According to the report, 42% of them are unlet.
Kersington Crescent is the first site from a second batch of 15 garage sites that architects assessed. Two of the other 14 were judged not viable for housing, and 12 are still being reviewed. Five earlier garage sites are already going through development, two of them with the Oxfordshire Community Land Trust.
Stubbs Avenue: two homes where one burned down
The second scheme is at 26 Stubbs Avenue, OX3, in Churchill ward. The report on it says a fire on 5 March 2025 left the council-owned property, a 1950s timber-framed prefabricated bungalow, structurally unsound. It has since been demolished.
Cabinet approved a pair of semi-detached homes for social rent in its place:
- a four-bedroom home for up to seven people
- a two-bedroom home for up to three people
- heat pumps, solar panels and heat-recovery ventilation, built to be net zero carbon in use
- a budget of £854,700, helped by an insurance settlement and an expected Homes England grant for the extra home
The report’s timetable has a planning application in October or November 2026, a contractor chosen by February 2027, a 50-week build from March 2027 and the homes ready to let in February 2028. The report says there is no requirement for a formal public consultation, but neighbours will be kept informed.
Northfield Gate reaches full height
In Littlemore, two four-storey blocks on the former Northfield Hostel site are now at full height, the council said on 23 October. A topping out ceremony was held there on 19 October with OX Place and the contractor, Equans.
The scheme has 51 homes:
- 27 council homes for social rent, let from the housing register
- 24 shared ownership homes
The site stood empty from 2014. The council expects the homes to be finished in spring 2027, with scaffolding off by the end of October.
How these fit the council’s target
The council aims to deliver more than 1,600 affordable homes across Oxford, with at least 850 at social rent. The Cabinet report puts that target over April 2026 to March 2030; the Northfield press release gives it as 2025 to 2029.
Its housing register had 4,068 applicants this month, as we reported. Last week Cabinet also approved 48 flats for homeless adults at 474 Cowley Road.
What it means for you
- If you rent a garage at Kersington Crescent: the report does not say what happens to current tenants or when notice would be given. Ask the council before you renew.
- If you live nearby: you can comment on the Kersington Crescent plans once the application is lodged, due February 2027, and on Stubbs Avenue from this autumn. Applications appear on the council’s planning register, and our Oxford planning news page follows the bigger ones.
- If you are on the housing register: the 27 Northfield Gate social rent homes are the nearest to being ready, from spring 2027. The others are years away.
- Call-in: the Cabinet decisions take effect on 27 October unless they are called in by councillors.
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