Multi-million-pound York building project quietly wound up

Get York Building was launched by City of York Council in February 2013, but the steering group has not met since January.

Minutes from that meeting, obtained by The Press, show it was agreed then that the group would not meet again.

The Press can also reveal that a "strategic housing forum", hailed in 2013 as one of the components of the project, has never held a single meeting.

An extract from January's minutes, obtained by The Press

The project was launched after house-building rates plummeted in York, and had the dual aims of unblocking the stalled housebuilding sector and providing sustainable homes to meet York's needs.

Its launch report called for a "step change" in the council's role, with it "actively facilitating development and unlocking potential."

The initiative was allocated £1 million in February 2013 to ease overcrowding in council homes and another £1 million in July 2013 to "stimulate development delivery".

It was also under the Get York Building banner that the council agreed in December 2013 to use £10 million to kickstart development at York Central, by funding a new access bridge on to the site.

The council's housing boss Steve Waddington today said much had been achieved since the initiative was launched, but developers and critics said it was a waste of money and "a complete farce".

Its dissolution in January appears never to have been made public by the council, although a two-year update is due at the end of this month.

Some developers say they were never asked why planned house-building projects had stalled, or say the progress made has had nothing to do with the council.

A council spokeswoman said that, since 2013, the authority had:

• Reduced its affordable housing targets, which had been a source of friction with developers
• Put £1 million towards loft conversions in council homes, to ease overcrowding
• Become more flexible in requiring Section 106 payments from developers, to ease their cash flow
• Received almost £290,000 over 2013/14 and 14/15 in developer contributions towards affordable housing.

Hungate, pictured here in March, is one of a number of large development sites in York that was hit by delays during the economic collapse.

The council aimed to bring about the creation of 35 new flats by converting floors above city-centre shops, but has achieved 18. It aimed to do 30 loft conversions in council homes and has completed 19, with the remaining budget rolled on into this year.

It aimed to deliver 50 to 70 new council homes by September this year; so far 29 have been completed, 14 others are due for completion in October and 39 others have planning permission and will be started shortly, the council said.

A promised update report on the £10 million earmarked for York Central has been postponed twice in the past 18 months, and is now due in August.

Mr Waddington said the Get York Building Steering Group had not been abandoned, but that the actions and interventions needed had been implemented and put into day-to-day practice.

He said: “The Get York Building (GYB) programme’s purpose was to review the state of York’s house building industry and to find what interventions the council could make to ensure, as far as it could, that house building in the city could come forward.

“The February 2013 report set out two main aims for the Get York Building programme: to support the local economy by helping unblock house building opportunities and jobs in the sector; and to provide much-needed sustainable homes of all tenures to meet the city’s housing needs.

“As a result, policy changes have been made where appropriate and changes made to the council’s practice, in particular around planning. The Local Plan and its delivery is outside the scope of GYB, and its next steps are to present to members how the council can bring forward further development.”

From left: Steve Waddington, Matthew Laverack and John Reeves

York architect Matthew Laverack said: "The Get York Building initiative was a complete farce and an enormous waste of taxpayers money. It achieved absolutely nothing - but cost half a million quid on the salaries of council officers who wrote copious reports trying to justify failed policies and find excuses why houses were not being built.

"The simple fact is that absolutely no schemes were kick started as a result of the GYB exercise. Those schemes that did eventually proceed did so for reasons that had nothing to do with Get York Building."

He said his firm was the architect for a number of the housing schemes supposedly looked at, but said neither he nor his clients were ever asked about the projects or why they were not proceeding.

He said: "It was all a sham. An exercise to make it look like the Council was doing something to get projects moving ahead; while all the time sticking to the failed policies that had caused the problems in the first place.

"Those officers responsible for this debacle should be held to account. If it was the private sector they would have been out of the door long ago."

Developer John Reeves said he was never consulted, but said that since the Government changed planning rules, his firm was currently delivering 110 housing units, with more in the pipeline, which he said "just shows how policies that actually work can increase supply for all… something we all told the former councillors many times, but were ignored completely as it did not suit their political ambitions."