Oxford City Council lets nine new council homes

Oxford City Council is letting nine new council homes built on the site of a former builders yard in Glanville Road.Developers Cantay Estates handed over three houses and a block of six flats to the council on 6 August. The houses all have four bedrooms and the block is made up of two one-bedroom and four two-bedroom flats.The allocations team is in the process of letting the new homes to applicants on the housing register. They will be allocated to a mix of council tenants on the transfer list and other families in housing need.Affordable rentsThe houses and one-bedroom flats will be let at social rent, which will be £446 a month for the flats and between £743 and £749 a month for the houses. The two-bedroom flats will be let at an affordable rent of £910 a month.Social rent is calculated with reference to the size and value of a home and average regional incomes. In Oxford, social rent is typically around 40% of equivalent private rents.Affordable rent – also known as intermediate rent – is set at up to 80% of an equivalent private rent, including service charges. This is the definition used by central government for affordable housing.According to the Office for National Statistics, in 2020/21 median monthly private rents in Oxford were £1,043 for one-bed and £1,250 for two-bed homes. The median monthly rent for homes with four or more bedrooms was £2,200.