The URBED Trust

URBED Intelligence: Oxford

Where should Oxfordshire's next homes go?

The UK is stuck on where to build. Everyone has a view, and few can see what each choice gives up.

This is a thought experiment, based on Oxfordshire, to help people consider the options: choose what matters to you, place the homes, and test scenarios for the future on open data.

A working prototype, in development.

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Open the tool

The tool is in development and open to the working group.

Sent a personal link? Open it and it takes you straight in, no password needed.

How it works

You work through four steps, and the map redraws as you go. The pictures here are simplified: in the tool, each hexagon is 250 metres across.

  1. Oxfordshire in hexagons, grey where the constraints take land out
    ConstraintsWhat should limit where new homes go: flood risk, green belt, wildlife, heritage.
  2. The land left, shaded darker where it scores higher
    AttractorsWhat makes land a good place for new homes: near a station, a good bus, jobs in reach.
  3. The homes placed on the highest scoring land, in gold
    AllocationHow many homes, and in what pattern: the highest scoring land, extensions, new settlements or corridors.
  4. The homes placed, and beside them what the choices add up to
    SummaryWhat your choices add up to, to save, compare and share.

Four ways to look at the options, or your own

Four starting points, each weighing what matters differently. Each of the four pictures shows where that way would put the homes, in gold, for a target of 26,505: five years' worth under the government's standard method. They show how the choices work, not what should happen.

  • Economy: shaded by how well land scores, grey where it is ruled out, gold where the homes go
    EconomyLeans towards the railway and the jobsHomes by the stations and the jobs, then where skills, land values and spare power are.
  • Equity: shaded by how well land scores, grey where it is ruled out, gold where the homes go
    EquityLeans towards the places that need it mostHomes first where they would lift the most deprived places, near a bus or a train.
  • Environment: shaded by how well land scores, grey where it is ruled out, gold where the homes go
    EnvironmentLeans towards protecting the countrysideGreen belt and National Landscapes out of play; land already built on first; farmland and wildlife count against a site.
  • Balanced: shaded by how well land scores, grey where it is ruled out, gold where the homes go
    BalancedA bit of eachEvery good reason for a place counts the same, from stations and jobs to deprivation and spare power.
  • Your own: a blank map of Oxfordshire under four sliders for you to set
    Your ownSet it all yourselfChange any of the four, or begin from a blank map: the constraints, how much each reason counts, how many homes, the pattern.
  • Ruled out by the constraints
  • Darker land scores higher
  • Where the homes go

See it in use

Three minutes, narrated, with captions.

Built on 36 layers of open data, each named and dated in the tool with its source and licence.