Levy on student housing is unlawful, claim Oxford Colleges

Oxford City Council's proposed Sites and Housing development plan (166-Pages / 7.4 MB PDF) document would require developers to pay £140 per square metre plus a 5% administration charge on all new student accommodation. It represents an "unlawful tax on the development of student accommodation", according to lawyers acting for the universities.

"Our clients are aggrieved at what they see as the substantial prejudice caused by the affordable housing policies," said David Elvin QC and Stephen Morgan, of Landmark Chambers, acting for the colleges, according to a local report.

The Sites and Housing development plan document "promotes" sites for student accommodation to help encourage students to live in halls rather than in family houses, the document said. "Planning permission will only be granted for new student accommodation that includes eight or more bedrooms if a financial contribution is secured towards delivering affordable housing elsewhere in Oxford," it said.

"Developers are especially keen to build some types of housing, such as houses built for open-market sale and student accommodation. Other types, such as affordable housing, can be less attractive to commercial developers, but are nevertheless important to achieving mixed and balanced communities. Planning policies therefore have an important role to play in ensuring a reasonable mix is maintained," it said.

However, the lawyers for the colleges argue that it is an unlawful tax. "The policy on careful analysis appears to amount to a form of specialist local tax, applicable only to student accommodation," the lawyers said. "It seems to be an attempt without lawful justification to introduce a type of CIL (Community Infrastructure Levy) in a case where CIL is not applicable."

The universities previously argued that making universities contribute to social housing as the price of being allowed to build new student accommodation would hit their ability to compete as leading academic institutions.

The lawyers have also accused Oxford City Council of striving "to rebalance land values within Oxford", according to the report.

"The Town Hall is ready to address some of the universities' concerns in advance of the inquiry," said Colin Cook, city council board member for city development.

Mr Cook said that the universities had misread what he said was the true intention, which was to deter developers from building student accommodation instead of new family homes, according to the report. But rather than making concessions, the council would seek to "tighten up the wording" in its planning document.

"We want to make sure that there is no perverse advantage in building student accommodation. By changing the wording I think we can address some of their concerns," said Cook.

"A group of Oxford colleges has requested a dialogue with Oxford City Council about the Housing and Sites Plan," said Maria Coyle. a spokesman for the universities. "Their submission concluded that the additional levy, otherwise known as the affordable housing contribution, is not consistent with the city council's core strategy adopted in March 2011."

"They also argue that the levy is not set out in the core strategy, nor was there any debate on this matter during the core preparation process," she said.

In its submission, Brookes University questions whether council policies were "legally compliant" on grounds "that the impact on Oxford's educational sector had not been considered".