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Where the 447-home redevelopment of the old Oxford Brookes campus stands — homes, affordable share, contributions and timeline, with the official planning sources.
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The biggest change in the village in decades: the old Oxford Brookes campus on Waterperry Road is becoming 447 homes. Here is where the scheme stands, in plain words, with the official sources to follow it.
Reserved-matters approval for 447 homes was granted on 31 July 2025. The parish was told demolition might begin before the end of March 2026; as of 18 August 2026 no published source we can reach confirms whether work has started on site.
The former Oxford Brookes Wheatley campus is being redeveloped by Crest Nicholson into 447 homes — a mix of houses and flats, 35% of them affordable, built to a zero-carbon-ready standard with heat pumps and electric-car charging.
South Oxfordshire District Council refused outline permission for the site. That refusal was overturned: the appeal was allowed in April 2020, so permission for up to 500 homes exists because of the appeal, not because the district granted it. The detailed 447-home scheme (the "reserved matters") was then approved on 31 July 2025. The developer expects the first homes to be completed towards the end of 2027.
Confirmed from Wheatley Parish Council's own minutes, January to August 2026.
The site's planning address is Oxford Brookes University, Waterperry Road, Holton — and Holton is a different parish. That makes Holton Parish Council the statutory consultee on the campus, not Wheatley's, even though Wheatley is the village that will absorb the traffic, the school places and the shops.
So the applications that decide how the build is actually run — drainage, archaeology, construction traffic — never reach Wheatley's planning committee agenda. Wheatley engages informally instead: its councillors met Crest Nicholson, Savills and Holton Parish Council in June 2026, and a councillor gave a verbal update in August 2026 that was not minuted. The parish's own Oxford Brookes working group has not met since 2025 and has dropped off its list of working groups.
If you want the detail as it lands, the district's planning register is the place it appears first.
Agreed as a condition of the planning permission.
Crest Nicholson has committed around £5 million towards local roads, schools and public transport as part of the planning agreement (the "Section 106"). The exact split between projects is not published in one place; the parish council follows the detail through the planning file.
In November 2025 the parish council minuted that the agreement "could be renegotiated if the developers are willing", with a sports development plan to be written by the Wheatley Playing Fields Trust.
Outline P17/S4254/O (refused by the district, allowed on appeal April 2020) · 447-home detail P23/S1407/RM (granted 31 July 2025).
You can follow the application — documents, conditions and any new submissions — on the South Oxfordshire District Council planning register by searching those reference numbers. Wheatley's own planning committee meets on the second Wednesday of every month and is open to anyone (see When the parish meets, at /wheatley-england-gb/parish-meetings), though the campus itself sits in Holton parish and so is not usually on its agenda. The bimonthly Wheatley Newsletter goes to about 2,000 homes across Wheatley and Holton.
April 2020
Outline permission granted on appeal
The Secretary of State allowed up to 500 homes on the campus site, overturning the council's earlier refusal.
October 2024
Oxford Brookes leaves the campus
The university vacated the Wheatley site, ending decades of use as a campus and removing the village's largest on-site employer.
August 2025
The 447-home scheme is approved
Reserved matters — the detailed design for 447 homes — were approved, and Crest Nicholson announced the go-ahead.
March 2026
Demolition expected, and then silence
Wheatley Parish Council recorded that Crest Nicholson expected demolition to begin before the end of March 2026, and asked for the traffic management plan so it could be monitored. Nothing published since says whether demolition actually started, and the plan has not been recorded as received.
Late 2027
First homes expected
Crest Nicholson expects the first completions towards the end of 2027, with the rest following over the build-out.
April 2020
Outline permission granted on appeal
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