OxLEP – the Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership, the unelected and unaccountable quango responsible for the county’s forced economic growth strategy, is this week appointing consultants to work on a ‘refresh’ of the Strategic Economic Plan (SEP).
The Need not Greed Oxon campaign is calling on local Councils to work together to ensure the growth figures in the new SEP are more realistic and appropriate for a rural county and better focused on real need.
And we need you to help persuade them!
OxLEP is due to hold a public consultation on the SEP ‘refresh’ in the spring and it will be holding public events in the North, Central and South of the county. We will need you to respond to the consultation, calling for a re-think of the growth targets for Oxfordshire. More information about the public consultation will be available on this website shortly.
The Strategic Economic Plan is the blueprint for growth in the county over the next 17 years. The Plan includes proposals for 100,000 new houses by 2031, equivalent to two new cities the size of Oxford; plus 85,000 new jobs, and at least 200,000 more people, roughly a 30% increase in our population. In other words, it underpins all the decisions on housing and development in the county, but to date has not been subject to any public consultation or any environmental impact assessment.
OxLEP is seeking to ‘refresh’ its SEP “so that it reflects new government policy for local economic growth, changed local conditions and takes into account a wide range of work undertaken over the past 18 months.” Refresh of the Oxfordshire Strategic Economic Plan (SEP)
The Consultants have been appointed and work on the SEP ‘refresh’ began on 11 January. It is expected to take four months.
11th January 2016