COUNCIL chiefs have rubbished claims they are set to lose powers over housing developments in Oxford.

Fears were raised last week that a failure to hit performance targets could see the Planning Inspectorate making decisions about plans for hundreds of homes instead of local councillors.

The Government vowed to take powers away from ‘unnecessarily slow’ authorities as it outlined tougher new standards.

Reports that Labour-run Oxford City Council would fail the new tests were branded ‘not accurate’ by officials, but they failed to provide figures when asked.

It comes after councillors raised concerns about staff turnover and performance in the council’s planning department last year. It was later reorganised.

City council leader Bob Price said: “We have taken a lot of steps to address this and I have been assured the changes we made to the planning department have brought us up to spec.

“But we would be worried by any move to take away powers, because it would hamper our ability to work with the university and other developers on the big schemes like the Northern Gateway.”

The new government rules will be introduced in March, with councils assessed retrospectively.

They require local authorities to prove that between October 2014 and September 2016 they issued decisions for at least 50 per cent of all major applications within the statutory period of 13 weeks.

For the same period, they will also have to show 65 per cent of minor applications were decided within eight weeks.

In 2018, this will rise to 60 per cent for major applications and 70 per cent for minor ones.

According to analysis by the Local Government Chronicle, published last week, the city council is set to miss the targets.

But city council regeneration and housing boss David Edwards said: “The LGC article is not accurate and speculative.

“We are above the threshold. The council’s overall performance on the timing of planning decisions continues to strengthen despite a major increase in the number of applications.”

In a document setting out its plans, the Government said: “Decisions that are unnecessarily slow can increase costs for developers and delay or discourage investment. That is bad for the economy and bad for communities.”