The Joint Local Plan
A local plan sets out where new homes, jobs and infrastructure should go and the policies used to decide planning applications. South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse district councils have written a single Joint Local Plan to replace their separate plans. It covers the period to 2041, and in 2026 it was still being examined by government-appointed planning inspectors.
What it means for Wantage and Grove
The plan does not add new large housing sites around Wantage and Grove. Instead it carries forward the existing allocations:
- Crab Hill (Kingsgrove): 1,500 homes
- Grove Airfield: 2,500 homes
- Monks Farm: 885 homes
- North West of Grove: about 600 homes plus 60 homes with care for older people, and completion of the Grove Northern Link Road
- East Hanney: the two smaller 2019 allocations (50 and 80 homes)
A new strategy for Wantage (Policy SP9) supports the town-centre economy, pedestrian space in the town centre that keeps bus access, better wayfinding between Market Place, the Beacon and Kings Park, the eastern link road and improvements at Frilford lights. The plan also safeguards land for a Wantage and Grove station, a future Wantage Western Movement Corridor and a Harwell Campus to Wantage cycle route. It keeps the reservoir safeguarding, while recording the Vale’s strong objection to the reservoir.
A bumpy examination
The plan was submitted in December 2024 and hearings began in June 2025 at Bee House on Milton Park. In September 2025 the inspectors advised the councils to withdraw it, finding they had not met the legal “duty to co-operate” with Oxford City Council over housing. The councils disputed this strongly. In December 2025 the government announced it would scrap the duty for plans already under examination, and the hearings resumed in 2026. In September 2026 the inspectors asked for the plan period to start from 2025 and run a year longer, and for updated housing supply evidence. The next hearings are due to start on 17 November 2026.
By the numbers
- About 7,000 homes across both districts to help meet Oxford’s needs (councils’ figure)
- 5.26 years: the Vale’s housing land supply in September 2026
Already planning the next one
Under new government rules, the councils started a second plan, JLP2, running to 2045, in June 2026. Its first “scoping” consultation ran from 8 to 29 September 2026, and adoption is expected around 2029. Local government reorganisation could hand the later stages to new councils. The government proposed three new unitary authorities in July 2026 but paused the process for review in September.
How to follow it
All documents are on the councils’ Joint Local Plan examination page. Anyone can watch the hearings, which are streamed online.