A Broad Rental Market Area is an area ‘within which a person could reasonably be expected to live having regard to facilities and services for the purposes of health, education, recreation, personal banking and shopping, taking account of the distance of travel, by public and private transport, to and from those facilities and services.’

A BRMA must contain ‘residential premises of a variety of types, including such premises held on a variety of tenures’, plus ‘sufficient privately rented residential premises, to ensure that, in the rent officer’s opinion, the LHA for the area is representative of the rents that a landlord might reasonably be expected to obtain in that area’.

[Legislation - Rent Officers (Housing Benefit Functions) Amendment (No.2) Order 2008]

CHERWELL VALLEY

Broad Rental Market Area (BRMA) implemented on 1 September 2010

Map of the BRMA

Overview of the BRMA

The above map shows the towns of Banbury, Bicester and Brackley within a boundary marked in red. It covers an area approximately 22 miles wide from Long Compton and Chipping Norton in the west to Brackley in the east, and approximately 26 miles from Byfield in the north to Bicester in the south.

Its expanse of countryside punctuated by villages, the BRMA is based on the historic market towns of Banbury, Bicester and Brackley and is characterised by the River Cherwell which flows through it from north to south. The area’s main hospital is Horton General Hospital which provides a 24 hour Accident and Emergency service.

The towns of Banbury, Bicester and Brackley are served by arterial roads which allow for a degree of functional inter-dependence between them. The BRMA is bisected by the M40 which runs slightly to the east of Banbury and just to the west of Bicester. The A43 dual carriageway joins the M40 at Junction 10, and links to Brackley. The A422 runs across the BRMA passing through Banbury and Brackley whilst the A43 and the A34 are significant dual carriageways running through the BRMA. A direct rail connection provides a short journey between Banbury and Bicester.

Identification of Health, Education, Recreation, Banking and Shopping (HERBS)

The above map shows how the facilities and services (HERBS) are distributed. They mainly cluster in Banbury with a slightly smaller cluster in Bicester.

Accessibility to facilities and services

(Information sourced from publicly available websites)

Distance By Car (based on the Time By From To quickest rather than the Time by Car Time By Bus Remarks (where applicable) Train shortest route)

Chipping Norton Banbury 12.8 25 48

combination of bus, train Marsh Gibbon Banbury 26 37 77 and walk Ludgershall Bicester 7.1 16 139 1 bus Wed & Fri only Boarstall Bicester 7.9 21 75 1 bus Wed, Fri & Sat only

The above table shows the approximate distances in miles and journey times in minutes to Banbury and Bicester from peripheral locations. Car journeys are under an hour although bus journeys can be long due to the limited services in this part of the country. The table demonstrates the reasonableness of accessibility to the main facilities and services in the area. By implication the table also indicates that journeys to and from nearer destinations are also reasonable.

Variety of Property Types and Tenures

Variety of Property Types Total All Household Spaces (Total) 69952 In an Unshared Dwelling 69811 House or Bungalow (Subtotal) 63864 Detached 24528 Semi Detached 23297 Terrace or End Terrace 16039 Flat, Maisonette or Apartment (Subtotal) 5707 Flat, Maisonette or Apartment: In a Purpose-Built Block of Flats 4063 Flat, Maisonette or Apartment: Part of a Converted or Shared House 1141 Flat, Maisonette or Apartment: In a Commercial Building 503 Caravan or Other Mobile or Temporary Structure 241 In a Shared Dwelling 141 Variety of Tenure Types All Households (Total) 67386 Owned (Subtotal) 50157 Owned: Owns outright 17881 Owned: Owns with a mortgage or loan 31985 Owned: Shared ownership 291 Social rented (Subtotal) 8792 Social rented: Rented from Council (Local Authority) 5418 Social rented: Other social rented 3374 Private rented (Subtotal) 6812

The figures in bold in the above table show the number of houses and flats in the BRMA and how many of them are owned, socially rented and privately rented. The other figures show sub categories. The table demonstrates that the BRMA contains a variety of types of residential premises and that they are held on a variety of tenures. Note: The table was compiled by matching the Office of National Statistics 2001 Census data as closely as possible to the BRMA map boundary.

Sufficient Privately Rented Premises

The table shows 6,812 privately rented premises in the BRMA.

We would expect to collect approximately 20% of the private rented sector market; this would be about 1,362 pieces of lettings information to include on our list of rents. This is considered sufficient privately rented residential premises to ensure that, in the Rent Officer’s opinion, the Local Housing Allowance for tenancies in the area is representative of the rents that a landlord might reasonably be expected to obtain in that area.