The two part scheme being brought forward the city council and developer Peabody will see the existing community centre and shops on Knights Road knocked down at the end of this month.

A new district centre at the heart of Blackbird Leys estate will include 210 homes with a further 84 traditional three-storey houses for shared ownership to be built at Knights Road.

Planning consent for the Community Centre has been granted in outline, with a submission due this Spring for detailed planning.

Simon Barry, managing director, Development at Peabody said: “We’ve come a long way since we first engaged with the community in 2019 about our proposals for Blackbird Leys, so I’m delighted to now see work beginning on site.

“This marks a critical step forward in our programme to rejuvenate this area with much-needed affordable homes and purpose-built high-quality public spaces.

“The next stage is to finalise our plans for the community centre, and we’ve had brilliant conversations with local residents and organisations over the past few months – that’s thanks to the fantastic energy of this community.  We’re looking forward to building on this as we move through the final design stage.”