City Visits
City Visits: Reflections from York
Centre for Cities spent some time in York this week to get a better understanding of how the city’s economy is faring.
Centre for Cities spent some time in York this week to get a better understanding of how the city’s economy is faring.
Centre for Cities spent some time in York this week to get a better understanding of how the city’s economy is faring and what was on the horizon. It was a great visit and I left with a much better impression of the scale and importance of the York Central development to the city’s future.
York – like some other cities such as Bristol – is finding it increasingly challenging to balance the need for both commercial and residential uses. Difficult policy choices about which types of uses to prioritise are required in order to accommodate continually growing numbers of people wanting to live (including students) and stay in them (tourists), and businesses wanting to locate in them. It’s easy to say they should accommodate all of them. But in cities like York, that face very sharp binding constraints around the use of land – small heritage constrained city centre, international tourist destination, huge green belt that is politically defended – some prioritisation and control is essential if the city centre is to function as the commercial heart of the city.
The challenge of prioritisation is made worse by the fact that, because of national policy, York effectively has one policy hand tied behind its back. Our Space Race report published in 2018 looked at this issue and argued that whilst the expansion of Permitted Development Rights (PDR) policy to encourage more housing to be built by converting commercial buildings is a good idea, it needs to be amended to give ‘matter of right’ Article 4 exemptions to city centres. It is right for policy to aim to encourage more housing in cities like high demand, low affordability places like York, but these homes should be additional to commercial space, not instead of it. This relates to my second reflection.
York Central – the mixed use development on the edge of the city’s centre is vital to enabling the city to accommodate (some of) the demand its experiencing. The scheme is big – in terms of size its roughly equivalent to 30 per cent of the size of the existing city centre. Details of the York Central scheme can be found here. We wrote about York Central in our report looking at the Kings Cross development and drawing out lessons for other big regeneration schemes. At the time we were concerned that York Central has too much housing relative to commercial space as a share of the development. After my visit, my concern still stands. There is no doubt that York needs more housing – it is the least affordable city in the North of England. But it is also very short of city centre office space, and how this site is used will be critical for how York’s economy performs in the future. Assuming no more office space is lost via PDR, the extra office space added will increase the share of floorspace given over to offices in the city centre from 13 to 16 per cent. This is an improvement, but still some way behind Bristol’s figure of 33 per cent.
My third reflection is that planning constraints that limit the development of new homes outside of the city centre will need to be relaxed. Most brownfield sites, including those in the green belt, have either already been developed or are scheduled for development in the medium term. York is also participating in Homes England’s Garden Village scheme, which will also add more houses albeit over a longer timeline. Ultimately, the green belt restricts the ability of York, and other green-belt surrounded cities, to expand outwards and protected views of the Minster constrain its ability to build upwards. These regulations need to be carefully but deliberately relaxed if York is to provide the homes it needs at prices people can afford without squeezing out the commercial space needed to house the businesses that provide the jobs and wages that those living and working in York need. This will require cross-party leadership and bravery from York’s politicians in their role as custodians of the city – past, present and future.
The demand to be in York – to live, to work, to study, to visit – is strong and increasing. Managing this growth so it works for the city rather than against it, is the challenge for its policymakers in the years ahead.
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Alex O'Leary
Good reflections, and hadn’t appreciated lack of commercial space on York Central, as a lot of local rhetoric here emphasises lab space and the jobs it will create. Issue of prioritisation an interesting one. As a York resident (first time buyer) since March 2023, I have little faith that council can resist the short-term tourism revenue. And to be honest, I’d be more worried about other areas obtaining jobs that might otherwise come to York: Leeds and Newcastle, as well as Darlington.