Barton Park development SHIFTING goalposts in planning targets may leave areas of countryside around Oxford open to housing development. Since 2017, the county has had a special arrangement with the Government where planning chiefs must demonstrate three years worth of homes are being built to meet predicted need for housing. But now, all five of Oxfordshire’s district councils, which oversee planning, will have to revert to the normal arrangements of maintaining a five-year housing land supply, to meet housebuilding targets calculated by the Government. Property firm Savills has said the change leaves all Oxfordshire councils at risk of developers building on land which is not set aside for homes if they cannot show they have a five-year supply, while council leaders have said they are disappointed.