16/07/2026
🚨 BREAKING: The Labour Government has chosen to create a “Greater Oxford” model….
Oxfordshire’s existing county and district councils are set to be abolished and replaced by three new unitary authorities:
đź”´ Greater Oxford Council
🔵 Northern Oxfordshire Council
🟢 Ridgeway Council
This is the model put forward by Labour-run Oxford City Council – Chosen today on the last day before the parliamentary recess….
It means Oxford will expand beyond its existing boundaries and take in surrounding communities and large areas of the Oxford Green Belt close to Abingdon, including Sunningwell, Wootton, Culham, Farmoor, Appleton, Kennington, Berinsfield, as far as Shillingford….
Most of the remaining Vale of White Horse and South Oxfordshire, including Abingdon, will join West Berkshire in a new "Ridgeway" Council.
Abingdon will effectively become the northern edge of a council stretching south and west into Berkshire
The Government has therefore rejected both:
❌ One Oxfordshire, the County Council’s proposal for a single council covering the existing county
❌ The two-council proposal supported by most of Oxfordshire’s district councils and West Berkshire
I said earlier this year that the Government’s decisions elsewhere appeared to point clearly towards this outcome: smaller councils, redrawn boundaries and a particular focus on expanding cities to support housing growth.
That prediction has now come true.
This is an enormous change. It will mean splitting up countywide services including adult social care, children’s services, SEND, highways and public health, before rebuilding them across three entirely new organisations.
It also confirms that existing communities and council boundaries were ultimately less important to the Government than its plans for Oxford’s expansion and housing growth.
Today’s announcement is the Government’s preferred “minded-to” decision.
The detailed legal arrangements will follow through a Structural Changes Order, with elections to the new shadow councils expected in May 2027 and the new councils due to take over on 1 April 2028.
[Minor point: my term as county councillor will therefore cease early and there are big decisions for many about whether to stand for election for "Ridgeway" next year.]
Streamlining and combining County and District functions into unitaries may end up being more efficient, but I'm sceptical about this particular chosen map
I will write more this about what this means for Abingdon, our services and local democracy over the weekend.
But for now: Oxfordshire’s map is being torn up, and “Greater Oxford” is coming.
