Priority e) Housing: Increase the supply of good quality affordable housing
We adopted the City of York Local Plan at an extraordinary Full Council meeting on Thursday 27 February 2025. The adopted Local Plan forms part of the city’s statutory development plan, sets out the vision and strategy for York until 2033 and provides the basis for decisions on planning applications.
Affordable housing
Central to the success of our Housing Delivery Programme is the belief that a high-quality, affordable, comfortable home is essential for residents to thrive. Good quality housing impacts all areas of life from increased educational attainment and better health outcomes to improved economic outcomes.
The Housing Delivery Programme is actively building affordable homes and disposing of land for 100% affordable housing. We have undertaken an independent review of the financial capacity within our Housing Revenue Account, with the aim of building a strong future pipeline of affordable housing.
Supporting our ambitions for more affordable housing across the city, the Combined Authority has provided £4.5 million of brownfield funding to unlock more sites.
Key sites
At the Willow House site, in the South Walmgate area, works are progressing with an imminent planning application. We have established a resident engagement panel along with a youth engagement panel and open drop-in events to ensure local people’s voices are reflected in the design from initiation. The emphasis is on the provision of 1, 2 and 3 bedroom social rented and shared ownership homes that meet our residents' needs. Woolnough House, Morrell House and the 68 Centre are being marketed to the sector to be delivered as 100% affordable housing. These sites will deliver a minimum of 24 new affordable homes.
The Duncombe Square site is delivering 34 new homes and completed in Autumn 2025. Engaging with local communities has been key to developing the plans. Residents and pupils from Clifton Green Primary School were involved from the outset to help to develop an understanding of the local context and to develop a brief used to design the proposals. The site will encourage social interaction with communal plant growing areas, and a new central green space with natural play for children as well as a small public square in front of St Luke’s church, as well as improved transport links.
The Burnholme Green housing development site is part of a major Council regeneration project which has already delivered a new library, community facilities and care home on the former Burnholme College site in the Heworth Ward. Burnholme will deliver 78 new homes across 11 terraces and, like Duncombe Square, 60% of these new builds will be affordable housing. More than a quarter of the homes are designed to be fully wheelchair adaptable and first handover of completed affordable homes at Burnholme is anticipated in November 2025.
The site team have successfully achieved the required airtightness on all plots which is a significant milestone in the delivery of Passivhaus projects.
The Ordnance Lane site will provide 101 affordable, Passivhaus homes. The process to date has included various public engagement events, which generated lots of valuable feedback and ideas. Groundworks will begin in Autumn 2025.
After the success of the Lowfield Green site, where 140 new houses were completed in 2023, we have been progressing work on Lowfield Phase Two sites A and B. Lowfield A, which will consist of approximately 15 homes for adults with learning disabilities and/or autism, is in the design stage with a planning submission expected in early 2026 and we have held some very positive and useful engagement events for local people, key stakeholders and those with lived experience of learning disabilities and autism.
Lowfield B is earmarked for accommodation for over 55s. The development of the site will be subject to a competitive flexible process, which is in the pre-market engagement phase at present.
Sustainable housing
During the last year we launched Yorenergy, which offers comprehensive retrofit solutions to optimise energy efficiency in people’s homes. With our free expert guidance and personalised energy saving tips, the aim is to empower people to make informed decisions that reduce energy bills and create warmer homes for everyone.
We have also been busy installing upgrades to some of our Independent Living properties. Alex Lyon House and Honeysuckle House have been fitted with solar panels, additional radiators in communal areas and air source heat pumps.
The Retro-Fit One Stop Shop York project received £3 million from Innovate UK and has been progressing well. Our first demonstrator home on Vine Street opens for bookings in September 2025 and local businesses, local landlords and members of the public will be able to visit and learn more about the benefits and possibilities of retrofitting.
The Local Energy Advice Demonstrator Project finished in April 2025 and we have received a positive letter from the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero (DESNZ) with congratulations and commendation for our work in this area. As part of this project, in person advice was provided to 475 people and 50 homes had measures installed. Importantly, DESNZ say the project has also significantly enhanced their understanding of how to advise consumers on home retrofit in the future.
Housing those in need
Our Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy was approved in December 2024 and was formally launched in partnership with the University of York in July 2025. A partnership group has started to meet, to oversee the implementation of the strategy and deliver a plan to make homelessness rare, brief and non-recurring. The Strategy takes a Housing First approach for those who are single and homeless, focusing on rapid re-housing, reducing or avoiding time in a hotel or temporary accommodation. Fundamental to this approach will be tailoring the support packages needed once someone with complex needs is in their own home rather than needing to navigate agencies before securing their accommodation.
What we will do over the next three months
- We will begin work on our second Retro-Fit One Stop Shop York property.
- We anticipate groundworks will begin at the Ordnance Lane site.
Making a positive difference
The percentage of repairs completed on first visit was 82.9% in 2024 to 2025, compared to 80.3% in 2023 to 2024.
The net additional homes provided was 712 in 2024 to 2025, compared to 528 in 2023 to 2024.
The net housing consents were 739 in 2024 to 2025, compared to 658 in 2023 to 2024.
The number of new affordable homes delivered in York was 153 in 2024 to 2025, compared to 122 in 2023 to 2024.
The number of people sleeping rough in York was 32 (snapshot) in September 2025, compared to 20 people in September 2024.
475 residents were advised and 50 retrofit works completed under the LEAD programme.
45 homes had 115 measures completed to improve insulation and reduce carbon, under the Home Upgrade Grant Phase 2 (HUG2) programme.
Case Study: Winter Fuel Payments
Last winter, we embarked on a focused campaign around raising awareness of Pension Credit, which provides eligible pensioners with over £3,700 per year to help with costs. Low awareness of the scheme means that over £3.7 million in Pension Credit goes unclaimed each year in York. Income Services and Community Teams came together to launch a Pension Credit campaign to maximise income for vulnerable residents using the Policy in Practice’s Low Income Family Tracker (LIFT) platform’s built-in expert policy engine, to identify over 470 households that were missing out.
The Income Services team then contacted 150 pensioners who had social care packages and were eligible for Pension Credit. The Community team worked with the remaining 320 residents without care packages. They partnered with voluntary community sector partners like Citizens Advice York, Age UK York, and Older Citizen’s Advocacy York to contact residents identified as eligible for Pension Credit offering advice at community hubs, by appointment, face to face, phone and home visits.
Between the campaign's launch in Autumn 2024, up to March 2025, 246 pensioners claimed £1.7 million in Pension Credit and passported support.
- 83 pensioners with care packages are now claiming over £489,728 in Pension Credit.
- 163 pensioners across the city are now claiming over £912,942 in Pension Credit.
An extra £32,00 in Winter Fuel Payments (using £200 as the average value of WFP) was given to pensioners.