City of York Council backs drawing up new Local Plan

City of York Council’s executive has approved a timetable for drawing up the document, which sets out development locally, over the next four years with an aim to adopt it by 2029.

Cllr Michael Pavlovic, the council’s Labour planning spokesperson, said York risked being left open to speculative development as the current plan becomes increasingly outdated if they did not act.

But Liberal Democrat opposition leader Cllr Nigel Ayre said the process risked bringing development to a halt and encourage developers to sit on sites already allocated in the existing plan.

Approval of the timetable to draw up the new Local Plan comes after councillors approved the current one in February 2025.

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It marked the first time York had had such a document since 1956 and was the result of work dating back to 2018.

The current plan would see around 20,000 homes built by 2038, 822-a-year, including 4,000 affordable ones.

But the executive heard on Tuesday, April 14 significant changes in development policies and national expectations meant a new one was now needed.

The Labour Government has set a national target to build 1.5m new homes by the end of the current parliament, no later than 2029.

Councils will be subject to mandatory targets for yearly house-building, with York’s set at 1,217.

Some of the £1.8 million cost of producing a new plan could also be covered by £108,500 in Government support pledged to councils that start work on them this year.

Councils required to draw up new local plans due to the changes, including York, can delay starting work on them until October 2029.

But Tuesday’s meeting heard delays would mean the existing Local Plan, which is based on a methodology from 2012, would become more out of line with regional and national policies.

That would mean that the plan would carry less weight in decision-making on developments, officials said.

A new local plan is set to be drawn up for York following the approval of one last year (Image: PA)

A council report also stated funding to help cover the costs of drawing up the new plan may not be available if the start of work is delayed.

Initial work on the new plan would begin in the coming months under timescales approved on Tuesday, with a decision on whether to proceed scheduled for October.

Engagement would take place after local elections in May next year, with a further round planned after the vote for York and North Yorkshire’s mayor in 2028.

It would then be submitted to the government for examination in December 2028 ahead of its approval in 2029, subject to the process going as planned.

Cllr Pavlovic said there were strong reasons to begin work on a new plan now.

The executive member said: “If we don’t then we leave ourselves open to the speculative development we’ve tried to avoid.

“Cllr Ayre’s claims are the worst kind of political posturing.”

But Cllr Ayre said the process would shift developers’ focus away from delivering sites already allocated under the current plan.

The opposition leader said: “This is an attempt to impose Labour’s failing housing policies on future councils, the challenge of delivering at pace is due a market outside the authority’s control.

“Developers will sit on strategic sites while chasing ever-more speculative opportunities.”