Oxford City Council wins at the UK Property Forums OXProp Awards

The council’s wholly owned development company, OX Place, won ‘Best Residential Development’ for Fishers Vale in Old Marston. This award celebrates a housing development that demonstrates exceptional creativity and forward-thinking design responding directly to the needs, aspirations, and lived experience of its customers. 

The council’s joint venture with Nuffield College, OxWED, won ‘Best Future Development’ for its plans to transform Oxpens into a new mixed-use riverside neighbourhood. This award celebrates a development that demonstrates a clear appreciation of the site, inspirational design, and a scale that creates a positive effect for the environment. 

Fishers Vale 

Fishers Vale is a new community in Old Marston comprising 26 houses and 14 flats arranged around a central green space. 

The fully affordable development provides 21 council homes for social rent and 19 shared ownership homes, helping to ease pressure on Oxford’s housing register while also providing opportunities for local people to take a first step onto the housing ladder. 

The homes have been designed with sustainability in mind. The all-electric development uses enhanced insulation, airtightness, high-performance windows and air source heat pumps to reduce energy use and help cut heating bills for residents. 

The homes were also designed to exceed national carbon reduction targets by around 56%. They feature secure cycle storage, electric vehicle charging points and design details inspired by the surroundings of the nearby nature reserve. 

Find out more at our website. 

Oxpens 

Oxpens is one of the most significant development opportunities in Oxford’s city centre. The scheme will transform a partly disused brownfield site into a new mixed-use riverside neighbourhood, bringing new homes, jobs, public spaces and better connections to this important part of the city. 

The development will bring: 

• Much-needed new housing, including 50 per cent affordable housing, alongside student accommodation 

• New and accessible public spaces, including an expanded Oxpens Meadow, an opened-up riverside and a new public amphitheatre for events and community use 

Oxpens forms part of the wider regeneration of Oxford’s West End, alongside opportunities around the station, Osney Mead and Frideswide Square. Together, these sites have the potential to create a highly sustainable new district for jobs and homes close to the upgraded Oxford Station. 

The site is being brought forward by OxWED LLP, a joint venture company owned by Nuffield College and Oxford City Council. The project’s planning submissions have been validated by the council and are being progressed alongside plans for the wider West End. 

• Social rent and shared ownership 
• Social rent levels mean council tenants will typically pay around 40 per cent of the rent a private landlord would charge for an equivalent home. 
• Shared ownership provides another route into home ownership, allowing eligible buyers to purchase a share of a property and pay rent on the remaining share.

Find out more. 

Comment 

“Winning these two awards is a fantastic recognition of the Council’s role in creating new homes and new places for people to live, work and enjoy in Oxford. 

“Fishers Vale shows what we can achieve when we turn underused land into high-quality, sustainable homes. The development provides 40 genuinely affordable homes, including 21 council homes for social rent, helping people on our housing register to find a secure place to call home. 

“Oxpens is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reimagine a new part of our city centre, bringing much-needed homes and jobs alongside new public spaces and better connections to the river and the wider West End. 

“These awards recognise two very different projects, but they part of a shared vision, to ensure sure Oxford has the homes, places and opportunities it needs to thrive in the future.” 

– Councillor Linda Smith, Cabinet Member for Housing and Communities at Oxford City Council