Even before this week’s decision was announced, the 505-hectare brownfield site at Heyford Park was described by government as needing “considerable transport planning and forward funding for infrastructure”.
It highlighted that additional bus routes and active travel would be required to join up with nearby railway stations.
According to the government, plans were “relatively small” compared to other proposals in the area between Oxford, Milton Keynes and Cambridge known as the OxCam arc.
Developments at Milton Keynes and Tempsford are both expected to deliver 40,000 homes each.
But more homes may still come.
The proposed site sits next to a partly-developed community with 1,300 homes already built.
Developer Dorchester Living owns both areas and has a planning application to build 9,000 additional houses on the land previously earmarked for the New Town.
The government said that any new development may “continue to be supported through existing government housing programmes”.
But there are concerns that without being part of the New Town initiative, vital services might fall behind the house-building targets.