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Housing investment and community support a key focus of South Oxfordshire’s 2025-26 Budget

Diligent financial management has ensured that South Oxfordshire District Council can deliver a balanced budget for 2025-26 and marks the first time in nine years that the council hasn’t needed to dip into its reserves. 

Yesterday (Thursday 13 February), district councillors approved a 2025-26 budget that ensures continued investment in public services, including crucial housing and infrastructure projects and guaranteeing support for vulnerable residents, despite the ongoing challenges of an unstable national economy. 

By protecting rather than using its reserves, the council is securing long-term financial stability, ensuring resilience against future challenges and maintaining the ability to invest in key services for residents.

Major funding is to be made available to support the purchase of more affordable housing across South Oxfordshire.  Having already committed £10 million to provide more safe, secure and compliant housing, purchased under the Local Authority Housing Funding (LAHF) schemes, the district council has now committed to make a further £10 million available to support the council’s long-term ambitions to meet local housing need.  

South Oxfordshire District Council has so far purchased 27 properties under the Local Authority Housing Fund (LAHF) scheme, the majority of which will provide genuinely affordable and energy efficient houses and apartments available for rent.

Councillors also approved funding to secure the future of the council’s Community Hub on an ongoing basis.  This valued service provides practical support and advice for those with cost-of-living concerns or who are finding life difficult.

Since launching in 2020, the Community Hub has supported thousands of residents across the district and provided more than £800,000 in vouchers and grants to households experiencing financial hardship. This has ensured people were able to pay vital energy bills and afford household essentials and food.  A further £200,000 has been awarded to local voluntary and community organisations, helping them continue their invaluable support provided to residents.

£590,000 will be made available through council grant schemes to support community projects such as improvements to public facilities, energy upgrades, local events and tree planting.

Berinsfield will benefit from a new floodlit multi-use games area, improved signage and public amenities and improved drainage for local sports pitches.

The council continues to fund an ongoing programme to improve the district’s leisure centres, including major decarbonisation projects at Henley Leisure Centre and Abbey Sports Centre and new equipment for Didcot Wave’s Spin Studio. Money for these projects comes from the Community Infrastructure Levy and Section 106 funding the council has secured from developers of new homes. 

The budget also includes funding to support the design and delivery of sustainable, affordable housing and ancillary community space in Didcot Broadway.

Despite a very unstable national economy, the budget maintains investment in key areas while ensuring that residents will continue to receive excellent value for money for services provided by the district council. 

South Oxfordshire District Council receives just 6 per cent of the total council tax that its residents pay each year.  The rest is divided between Oxfordshire County Council (77 per cent), Thames Valley’s Police and Crime Commissioner (12 per cent) and local town/parish councils (5 per cent). 

South Oxfordshire’s council tax is currently the 10th lowest among all shire district councils nationally and is less than half the equivalent charge in neighbouring Oxford City.

Council tax for services provided by South Oxfordshire District Council between 1 April 2025 and 31 March 2026 will be set at £151.24 for a Band D property.  This means just £2.91 per week for a wide range of services including waste and recycling collections, community support, leisure services, parks and play areas, housing and planning services, environmental health and licensing.

Alongside the 6 per cent portion of residents’ council tax, South Oxfordshire’s budget will also be financed by £7.8 million in government funding, including just over £1.4 million in New Homes Bonus^^ funding and £1.3 million from Extended Producer Responsibility, a new national policy that requires larger organisations to pay additional fees based on the packaging they produce.

Cllr Pieter-Paul Barker, Cabinet Member for Finance and Property Assets at South Oxfordshire District Council, said: “Despite significant economic uncertainty, we’ve shown resilience and responsibility in navigating the challenges facing local government and have worked hard to maintain our strong financial position.  For the first time since 2016, we can put money into our reserves instead of taking it out, this is great news for our residents as it means we are much more stable position going forward.”

“Our 2025-26 budget ensures we have been able to safeguard our valued services, such as the Community Hub, for the longer term, guaranteeing that help will be available for those who need it; and we can continue to build on our successes, providing more sustainable and affordable housing across the district and delivering wider improvement schemes in areas such as Didcot and Berinsfield, which will make a real difference to residents’ lives.

“For many years now we’ve been living with great uncertainty over how we will be funded year on year.  This has put many councils in an extremely difficult and challenging position.  With significant change planned across local government, the government must now be clear on how our public services will be funded going forward.”

To view the 2025-26 South Oxfordshire District Council budget, visit the 13 February 2025 Council meeting agenda page.

Notes for editors:

^The additional funding will be made available if suitable properties become available to purchase.  This funding is not allocated in this year’s budget and would be subject to the council’s future financial situation. It would also need to follow the relevant decision-making process at the time. 

*The Community Hub also led the districts Covid response and is supporting people in the Homes for Ukraine and Afghan resettlement schemes, providing cost of living advice residents, supporting residents following Storm Henk, health development work and much more.

^^The New Homes Bonus is a grant paid by central government to local councils to reflect and incentivise housing growth in their areas.  It is based on the amount of extra Council Tax revenue raised for new-build homes, conversions and long-term empty homes brought back into use. There is also an extra payment for providing affordable homes.  It is expected that 2025-2026 will be the final year of this grant.