Oxford

Introduction

Oxfordshire is constrained by its boundaries; it is a mainly rural county in the South East of England which is situated to the north-west of London. It covers an area of just over 2,600 km2, of which almost 75% is designated as Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), Areas of High Landscape Value or Green Belt. Oxford is the principal employment and service centre, and an international centre of education and culture. Beyond the Oxford green belt are the growing towns of Abingdon, Banbury, Bicester, Didcot and Witney.

Like most cities it has ambitions to grow larger (nearly 150,000 people). Housing costs have more than doubled in the period since 1998 and the average house price in Oxford is now almost 12 times the average salary of employees in the City. Unemployment is low, but there are pockets of deprivation, most notably in Banbury and Oxford. The county has a prosperous economy, but this brings associated problems such as labour shortages and recruitment problems affected by high house prices in the area.

Recent Visits

No recent visits.

Demographics for Oxford

Mid-2006 Population Estimates

Figures updated annually. Last update August 2007. Source: Office for National Statistics.

Children and Learners

• 13,170 free part-time early education places taken up by 3 & 4 year olds in 2007 in Oxfordshire
• There are 35 specialist schools in Oxfordshire (November 2007)
• There is 1 operational Academy in Oxfordshire (2007)

Health and Well Being

• £220m is being spent under Public Funded Iinitiatives (PFI) to bring trauma and children's services onto the John Radcliffe and Churchill hospital sites, and to relocate the University of Oxford's Clinical School department onto one site, enhancing research, teaching and training opportunities.

Crime

• over £253,000 was allocated for 2004-05 towards the fight against drugs. A further £253,000 was allocated for 2005-06 from the Safer & Stronger Communities Fund to the Oxford Crime & Drugs Reduction Partnership (CDRP) in their continued fight to reduce crime and drug abuse
• for 2004-05 £25,000 was allocated to the Oxford CDRP in their fight against anti-social behaviour. The same funding has also been allocated for 2005-06.
• £175,000 was allocated to the Street Crime Warden scheme in 2003-04 by the former ODPM (now Communities and Local Government (CLG)), with a further £75,000 given after extra funding was found to expand on the good work that the scheme was achieving, with additional funding in 2005-06. This will amount to over £690,000 being allocated to the scheme in the 4 years of funding.
• £30,000 has been allocated from the Domestic Violence Fund to promote a project providing support and advice to victims of Domestic Violence

Transport

• £100,000 was allocated for 2007/08 for access control study work and traffic modelling on the A34, to assess the implications of housing growth within the City following its designation as a new Growth Point.
• as part of the £88m ‘A34/Access to Oxford’ package strategy some £62m has been set aside in the SE Regional Funding Allocation for works at Oxford Station, including a new bay platform, link and station buildings. Works to commence in 2009-10 in conjunction with Network Rail
• Oxfordshire's second Local Transport Plan for 2006-11 was assessed as 'good'. In the three year local transport settlement for 2008/9-2010/11 Oxfordshire CC received, for 2008/09, £21.933 million for integrated transport and highways capital maintenance. It also received additional funding of £3.29 million for road safety and for maintenance of detrunked roads

Social Inclusion and Regeneration

• £570,000 was awarded in 2005-06 to fund services for rough sleepers and single homeless people
• over £19.7m was allocated to Oxfordshire in 2005-06 for the Supporting People programme, one of 23 area schemes in the UK funded by CLG. The programme funds housing-related support services enabling vulnerable people to maintain independent living
• during 2005-06 over £54,000 was awarded from the Community Champions funding enabling Oxford residents to participate in renewing their neighbourhood through community groups. The new programme runs from April 2006 to March 2008.
• Oxfordshire completed its Infrastructure Development Plan, and has been awarded £37,500 Continuation Funding for 2006-07 from Capacitybuilders under the ChangeUp programme to support the on-going work of the local consortium
• Oxford City received £50,000 Preventing Violent Extremism Pathfinder Fund for 2007-08. In addition to funding of £3,465 for initial project work allocated from the 2006-07 Government Office South East capacity funds from PEU.

European Funding

• £109,000 was allocated for the Refugee Resource Access First Project - providing work experience for refugees and asylum seekers in the area
• a £215,000 Building Futures project, aimed at helping women in the Oxford area find employment within the building sector is being run by the Oxford Women’s Training Scheme (OWTS)
• nearly £1.3m of grant funding has been allocated under the Leader+ programme supporting projects that help improve the quality of life in rural West Oxfordshire