A £48 million deal for 354 new council homes to be built west of Barton has been signed off by council bosses.

The homes will form part of the planned 885-home Barton Park estate, Oxford City Council said.

It is the city’s biggest development in a generation and will include a primary school, community and sports buildings and parks.

The affordable homes will make up about 40 per cent of the site, short of the 50 per cent required by the council’s own policy.

But leader Bob Price has said that was due to infrastructure costs the city had to meet.

The main infrastructure for the site, including parks, drainage and roads, was signed off earlier this month, meaning work can begin in the spring.

Oxford City Council and Grosvenor, which formed the partnership Barton Park LLP, have chosen developer Hill to build new homes.

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The city council has signed the £53 million deal for its share of homes with Barton Park LLP.

The first houses are expected to be built in early 2016 and pass into council ownership in the same year.

They would be “spacious and energy efficient”, the council said.

Executive board member for housing and estate regeneration Scott Seamons said: “Delivering new high quality affordable housing is the top priority for the city council, with over 950 new council homes alone planned in the next decade.

“This agreement is an important step in realising those plans.”

Councillors on the east area planning committee approved a blueprint for the Barton Park development in September 2013.

And on February 11 this year, councillors approved the details for infrastructure, meaning work is likely to start before the end of spring.

At around the same time, Hill is expected to submit plans for the first wave of 237 homes.

The developer specialises in environmentally-friendly schemes and the council has said the homes will generate 20 per cent of their own energy using renewable sources.