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Here’s how Boris Johnson’s manifesto pledges affected Oxford

Byoxfordnewspaper

Sep 5, 2022

AS the Conservative Party elected Liz Truss as its new leader and Prime Minister of the UK earlier today, we look back at Boris Johnson’s time in the post and what it meant for Oxford.

Mr Johnson, whose political career started in Oxford, when he was elected president of the University’s Union in 1986, said he is "proud" of his time at Number 10 and that he will end his premiership with his head held high.

He will leave office this week less than three years after his landslide election victory in 2019.

READ MORE: How Boris Johnson's career in politics started in Oxford

He made major pledges in his manifesto, including "getting Brexit done”, recruiting more police officers and more housing – we looked at how his time in office affected the city and its services.

Police officer uplift

Mr Johnson promised to recruit 20,000 new police officers across England and Wales in his 2019 manifesto.

The Home Office then launched the police officer uplift programme in April 2020, with the aim of achieving the 20,000 target by March 2023.

The latest Home Office figures show 13,790 extra officers had been recruited via the uplift programme as of June.

Of them, 442 have been recruited to Thames Valley Police, which covers Oxford.

There were 4,250 police officers in Thames Valley in November 2019, just before Mr Johnson became Prime Minister – this rose to 4,692 in June this year.

But Ché Donald, national vice-chairman of the Police Federation, said the uplift programme does not go far enough and only replaces previously lost officers.

Mr Donald said "long-term recruitment and sustainable funding" is required so that police leaders can also focus on the retention of staff.

The Home Office said the uplift programme has brought policing numbers to a 10-year high.

Brexit

Boris Johnson promised to "get Brexit done" – and on January 31 2020 at 11 pm, the UK ceased to be a part of the European Union.

That will have disappointed the majority of people in Oxford as just 30 per cent of people in the area who voted in the 2016 referendum opted to leave the EU, while 70 per cent voted to remain.

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Housing

Mr Johnson also pledged to create an additional 300,000 homes per year in England by 2025.

However, this target has not been met yet, and Mr Johnson conceded earlier this year that he could not give a "cast-iron guarantee we are going to get to a number in a particular year".

The latest figures from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government show 242,700 homes were built in 2019-20, while just 216,489 were built the following year – the lowest number in the last five years, as the coronavirus pandemic hampered building activity.

In contrast, 464 additional dwellings were created in Oxford in 2020-21 – up from 222 the year before.

Housing and homeless charity Shelter said the Government hasn't built enough homes for years and that people need "genuinely affordable and secure homes".

Read more from this author

This story was written by Anna Colivicchi, she joined the team this year and covers health stories for the Oxfordshire papers.

Get in touch with her by emailing: Anna.colivicchi@newsquest.co.uk

Follow her on Twitter @AnnaColivicchi