COUNCILS across England are shelving major developments, as grants and sources of private sector investment dry up.

But Oxford City Council’s newly appointed executive director of regeneration, David Edwards, has a list of multi-million pound projects on his ‘to do’ list.

He has been taken on to oversee an era of unprecedented expansion in the city of dreaming spires.

He initially agreed to work at the Town Hall for a year. But the challenge of regenerating one of the world’s most iconic and historic cities proved irresistible and he has now taken up a permanent full-time post.

He replaces Mel Barratt who left the city council in March last year on a £109,000 salary.

Mr Edwards said: “The council said they wanted me to do more work here, with the city having a set of projects that they are keen to have delivered.”

It begins with Barton West, the scheme to create a new community of up to 1,200 homes on a 36-acre site on the north side of the A40.

Next up is Westgate, with news that the city council has struck a financial deal with Oxford Crown Estate and Land Securities to secure the redevelopment of the ageing shopping centre.

As reported in last week’s Oxford Mail, the package will go to the city executive board next month with a view to seeing the start of work in two years.

Later this month, council officers will meet British Railways Board officials to discuss developing the huge Oxpens site, to create between 400 and 500 homes in the city centre.

Then there is the Northern Gateway scheme to create a business park near Pear Tree, to provide 3,000 jobs and 200 homes. But here, the city will have to content itself with “encouraging” developers and landowners to come forward with plans.

Mr Edwards comes to Oxford from the Homes and Communities Agency, where he was director for the South East Region.

He previously spent three years working in the Department of Communities and Local Government, then under the stewardship of John Prescott, where he was head of regeneration, land and property and chief estates officer.

But he can also claim to have spent half his career in the private sector, having been a director of Arup, the design, planning and engineering consultants, famous for its Millennium bridges and its Olympic projects in Beijing.

Delivery is what Mr Edwards prides himself on – and he sees the flagship Barton West scheme as the way he believes the city council can take the lead in working in partnership with the private sector to create the new homes the city desperately needs.

“It took a lot of hard work to make it happen, to create this opportunity,” he said.

The city owned the land but forming a joint venture company with Grosvenor Developments Ltd, he believes, has been the key.

Rather than simply selling the site, the partnership approach means the council will be able to deliver a high quality scheme, he argues.

He said: “We did not want to take the money and walk away. We have said we want to keep our investment in the scheme. We have 40 per cent social housing in the Barton scheme with the opportunity to raise it to 50 per cent.

“We now have councils like Bristol coming to see how we have done it.”

Mr Edwards hopes to see homes eventually built south of Grenoble Road.

The coalition’s Government’s decision to axe the South East Plan – the regional blueprint for development until 2026 – damaged the prospect of 4,000 homes being built south of Greater Leys because it handed the decision back to South Oxfordshire District Council, which opposes the idea.

“Oxford recognises that it has a very significant housing problem,” said Mr Edwards.

“We have a major site off Grenoble Road, which is on the wrong side of the boundary. It has the potential to be another Barton. It offers a tremendous opportunity. We will not give up.”