York and North Yorkshire Mayor, David Skaith at UKREiiF

New partnership seeks to scale up existing collaborative working to unlock significant housing and regeneration plans for the area.

Homes England, the government’s housing and regeneration agency, and York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority (YNYCA) have today signed a Strategic Place Partnership (SPP) to catalyse the delivery of the region’s ambitious housing and regeneration goals. 

The partnership formalises the alignment of YNYCA’s strategic priorities with the broad range of Homes England’s tools, including funding, capacity and expertise. Teams from YNYCA and Homes England will work together to unlock significant housing and regeneration plans in the area, boosting local placemaking ambitions through partnership working. 

As well as bringing forward a new way of working for housing delivery in the region, the SPP will build on the collaboration already happening on projects like York Central, one of the country’s largest city centre regeneration sites with the potential for up to 2,500 new homes.   

The partnership will be underpinned by the development of a shared business plan aligned to local priorities and focused on a range of developments across the area including Maltkiln and Elvington Garden Village.  

Through the SPP, Homes England will work collaboratively with YNYCA to boost the availability of new and affordable homes for York and North Yorkshire residents. 

Homes England now has nine Strategic Place Partnerships in place with Mayoral Strategic Authorities across England. 

Pat Ritchie CBE, Chair of Homes England, said: “Our Strategic Place Partnership with the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority signals our commitment to working with, and for, local leaders to drive real growth in their communities.  

In York, for example, we are already working with partners including Network Rail, the City of York Council and the National Railway Museum to drive forward the transformation of York Central, one of the UK’s largest brownfield sites, into new homes, cultural spaces and infrastructure.”

David Skaith, Mayor of York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority, said: “Across York and North Yorkshire, we are in the midst of a housing crisis, with some of the most expensive homes in the UK. With over 10,000 households on housing waiting lists in our region, we must act now. 

We need to build the right homes in the right places, ensuring people in all our towns, cities and villages can stay and live in our region.  

Bringing together Homes England, our councils and key organisations through the York and North Yorkshire Strategic Place Partnership will help us all deliver on our shared vision to get building.”

As we work towards the government’s target of 1.5 million new homes this parliament, partnerships like this will be crucial in ensuring we deliver the right homes in the right places, in this case by supporting both urban regeneration and rural advancement across York and North Yorkshire.