Your council

Snapshot of progress on the Council Plan

Affordability progress snapshot

Our Equalities and Human Rights 'snapshot of progress' will be updated every 6 months to provide details of our activity, as we work to deliver the Council Plan; One City, for all.

Council Plan affordability icon, blue illustration of a pound symbol.

For our core commitment to Affordability and tackling the cost-of-living crisis, we'll find new ways so everyone who lives here benefits from the success of the city, targeting our support at those who need it most, supporting communities to build on their own strengths and those of the people around them.

Priority actions

Find out more about progress on each priority action relating to affordability:

Priority action: Start the journey towards becoming an anti-poverty city within a decade, including supporting young people and families, reducing food insecurity and exploring the benefits of free school meals for all primary school children.

Progress from August 2025 to present:

  • Work to progress York's ambition of becoming an anti-poverty city continues, with a strong focus on supporting children, young people and families, reducing food insecurity and widening access to nutritious meals.
  • The York Hungry Minds initiative is now scaling up, with 13 primary schools participating. Funding has been secured for 10 of these schools, and work is underway to onboard them into the programme. All participating schools launched in April 2026. We have been meeting individually with headteachers to ensure that each school has the support, guidance and practical arrangements needed to deliver free school meals.
  • Alongside this, wider work is taking place beyond Poverty Proofing, School Day audits and the Hungry Minds programme. As part of the Year of Belonging in Education, we and our partners are exploring the links between poverty, trauma, mental health and school attendance. This work aims to deepen understanding of the barriers faced by children and families and strengthen the support available across the education system.
  • Low awareness means that more than £3.7 million in Pension Credit goes unclaimed each year in York. The Income Services and Communities teams launched a Pension Credit campaign to maximise the income of vulnerable residents and ensure that they were accessing entitlement to the right adult care support. Since the campaign launched in autumn 2024, 246 pensioners have claimed £1.7 million in Pension Credit and other benefits up to the end of March 2025. Work continues to identify and support residents directly, ensuring that they receive the benefits to which they are entitled.

Back to list

Priority action: Create pathways to learning and skills development leading to good quality jobs and improved life chances.

Progress from August 2025 to present:

  • Work to create clear pathways into learning, skills development and good-quality employment continues across the city. In partnership with the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority, we have secured £1 million for the development of the Get Britain Working Trailblazer programme, including the establishment of a Work and Skills Interchange. The Interchange provides advice and connections for people seeking work or trying to stay in work, with a particular focus on supporting residents with significant health conditions who are currently economically inactive.
  • Following the success of the David Forbes-Nixon Charitable Foundation's Project SEARCH internships at Aviva, York College and City of York Council, where four out of five interns progressed into employment, the programme is now expanding. In 2025/26, Aviva is hosting a second cohort of interns, and we have approved our own DFN Project SEARCH programme in partnership with LNER. There are currently ten interns across the two programmes, strengthening opportunities for young people with Education, Health and Care Plans to gain meaningful work experience and move into sustained employment.
  • York Learning continues to see rising participation in careers information, advice and guidance across its programmes. An increase in the number of job fairs has also driven attendance up significantly, from 789 people in 2023/24 to more than 2,000 in 2024/25, meaning many more residents are now accessing support and exploring opportunities to improve their economic prospects.
  • We continue to work with York Central developers and the wider Construction Skills Partnership on the potential for a Construction Skills Centre in the city, taking into account the findings of a feasibility study funded by the UK government and completed in 2025.
  • Our aim to increase knowledge of transferable skills has been embedded across York's adult learning provision, provision for 16- to 18-year-olds and our SEND offer. This is about learners understanding how their skills and experiences transfer into different jobs. When asked, 'What are your transferable skills?', 71% of learners can now articulate this.
  • York Learning continues to promote clear skills pathways into a wide range of employment routes, including cyber security, business administration, bookkeeping, teaching assistant roles, counselling, creative industries, both employed and self-employed, and digital skills. We also provide awareness and training around the skills needed to enter the care workforce across both childcare and adult care. In childcare specifically, we offer progression opportunities from Level 2 up to Level 5.
  • York Learning's wellbeing offer continues to strengthen learners' resilience, confidence and communication skills, improving both access to learning and progression within it. Alongside this, we support residents to manage their wellbeing in relation to work, helping to improve engagement, productivity and participation. This work also contributes to wider community development by building supportive networks and communities of interest.

Back to list

Priority action: Realise the economic opportunity provided by devolution, York Central and the bioeconomy.

Progress from August 2025 to present:

  • Following the approval of York's Prospectus in November 2025, we published an independent assessment of its potential socio-economic impact. The Prospectus sets out an ambitious long-term strategy for growth, placing innovation, culture and heritage at its core, and aims to attract investment to support economic and housing growth, tackle inequalities, expand clean energy and improve digital and transport infrastructure. Independent analysis by Sewells Advisory estimates that delivering the Prospectus could generate £12.1 billion in combined social, economic and environmental value for the city, including the potential for over 40,000 construction jobs and 2,700 operational jobs. This work reinforces York's position as one of the UK's strongest-performing cities for good growth and a dynamic location for business investment. The findings will support the next phase of engagement with partners and potential investors, ensuring that future prosperity is shared across communities through more well-paid jobs, truly affordable homes, improved public spaces and reduced inequality.
  • Officers have successfully applied for £36 million of funding from York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority to fund projects across transport, housing, skills and net zero. Highlights include:
    • £7.4 million for transport projects, including active travel developments across the city
    • £2.8 million from the Mayoral Investment Fund for projects including EV charging points and town regeneration plans in Acomb and Haxby
    • More than £600,000 for UK Shared Prosperity Fund programmes focused on VCSE and business support
    • £4.5 million for Brownfield Housing projects
    • £3 million from the Net Zero Fund, which has delivered renewable heating upgrades and conversions to LED streetlights
    • More than £900,000 for Trailblazer projects, enabling a range of projects across skills, mental health and children's services
  • We continue to work with York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority to maximise the region's devolution deal, supporting Council Plan priorities across transport, housing, skills and net zero projects.
  • We are also working with the North Yorkshire Combined Authority to pursue Established Mayoral Strategic Authority status and unlock greater financial flexibility from central government. This milestone grants mayors a consolidated, long-term funding settlement rather than relying on piecemeal grants, enabling them to move unspent money across different regional responsibilities.

Back to list

Priority action: Provide affordable transport for residents to access education, jobs, health and wellbeing support. Delivering fare concessions identified in the Bus Services Improvement Plan.

Progress from August 2025 to present:

  • In June 2025 we celebrated a major milestone, with the news that over one million £1 fares have been sold to young people since September 2023. The fare subsidy aims to improve access to education, work and leisure for York's under 19-year-olds by reducing the cost of travel. The scheme was launched as part of the city's Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) funded by central government and is still in place.
  • Following public consultation, the Park and Ride project design work is progressing, following approval by Executive in October 2025. The Dial and Ride and EV Strategy also went to Scrutiny, and we are now working through the outcomes of that meeting.

Back to list

Priority action: Increase the percentage of affordable homes (exploring opportunities through planning, travellers’ sites, community led projects, social housing, etc.) and seeking to exceed Planning policy on affordable homes.

Progress by September 2025:

  • We adopted the City of York Local Plan at an extraordinary Full Council meeting on Thursday 27 February 2025. The adopted Local Plan is the city's statutory development plan and sets out the vision and strategy for York until 2033 and provides the basis for decisions on planning applications.
  • Executive approved the proposal to secure 100% affordable homes on our land. See: Agenda for Executive on Thursday, 16 November 2023 (Item 12)
  • Supporting our ambitions for more affordable housing across the city, the York and North Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority has provided £4.5m, split across three key programmes, of brownfield funding to unlock more sites.
  • Our first affordable Passivhaus Homes at Duncombe Square have been launched. Duncombe Square is our first Passivhaus development of 34 high quality, zero carbon-in-use homes, built to an award-winning design. It is part of one of the largest Passivhaus schemes in the country that includes 78 homes at Burnholme Green - 60% of these houses will be a range of affordable home types and 101 homes set to be built at Ordnance Lane - 100% of which will be affordable.
  • 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 difficulties and autism.
  • 153 new affordable homes were delivered in York in 2024/5, which was up from 122 last year and 109 in 2022/23.

Back to list

Priority action: Reduce energy consumption and generate more local sources of renewable energy.

Progress from August 2025 to present:

  • We have retained A list status for climate leadership and action for the fourth year running from the global independent disclosure non-profit, CDP. York is one of only one hundred global cities to achieve this status.
  • We secured funding from the Combined Authority to install rooftop solar at Yearsley Pool, Joseph Rowntree School and Acomb Explore Library. We have also installed rooftop solar on an additional 4 schools in York through our partnership with Solar for Schools and York Community Energy. Solar panels have been installed at Joseph Rowntree School, Yearsley Swimming Pool, Pine Trees, Elvington, St Mary’s and Knavesmire Pavillion. We have completed additional instalment for Westfield Primary and Barstow House.
  • 18 York businesses have received a share of £335,000 awarded by the YNYCA Business Sustainability Programme.
  • Business cases are being developed for solar carports at York Park and Ride, funded by the YNYCA.

Back to list

Priority action: Target a range of funding sources and service delivery to where they are most needed.

Progress from August 2025 to present:

  • The Mayoral Combined Authority has committed £36 million to projects we lead, which will benefit our city and our residents.
  • In July 2025, we announced £500,000 of capital investment over the next two years to revitalise parks, play areas and public green spaces across the city. Officers are exploring additional funding sources to maximise this investment, meaning the overall funding could be closer to £1 million.

Back to list

Also see

Comment on this page
Coloured icons from the council plan representing equalities, affordability, climate and health.

The Council Plan 2023 to 2027 sets out our vision and our priorities to establish conditions that make York a healthier, fairer, more affordable, more sustainable and more accessible city where everyone feels valued.

The Council Plan; One City, for all