Agenda, decisions and minutes

To confirm arrangements for chairing the meeting.

Resolved:   That arrangements for Chairing the meeting were confirmed as follows:

·       Councillor Merrett – All standard agenda items 1-5, and agenda item 8 – Walmgate Improvement Scheme.

·       Councillor Lomas – Agenda item 7 - Financial Inclusion/Welfare Benefits Outturn 2025/26, and 8 – Urgent Business.

To receive and note apologies for absence.

There were no apologies.

At this point in the meeting, Members and co-opted members are

asked to declare any disclosable pecuniary interest, or other

registerable interest, they might have in respect of business on

this agenda, if they have not already done so in advance on the

Register of Interests. The disclosure must include the nature of

the interest.

An interest must also be disclosed in the meeting when it

becomes apparent to the member during the meeting.

(1)  Members must consider their interests, and act according to the following:

(2) Disclosable pecuniary interests relate to the Member

concerned or their spouse/partner.

(3) Members in arrears of Council Tax by more than two months

must not vote in decisions on, or which might affect, budget

calculations, and must disclose at the meeting that this restriction

applies to them. A failure to comply with these requirements is a

criminal offence under section 106 of the Local Government

Finance Act 1992.

The Executive Members were invited to declare any personal interests not included on the Register of Interests, any prejudicial interests, or any disclosable pecuniary interests that they might have in respect of business on the agenda. None were declared.

To approve and sign the minutes of the Combined Executive Member Decision Sessions held on Tuesday, 7 July, Tuesday, 30 July and Tuesday, 11 August 2026.

Resolved:   That the minutes of the Combined Executive Member Decision Sessions held on Tuesday, 7 July, Tuesday, 30 July and Tuesday, 11 August 2026 be approved and signed as a correct record.

At this point in the meeting members of the public who have

registered to speak can do so. Members of the public may speak

on agenda items or on matters within the remit of the committee.

Please note that our registration deadlines are set as 2 working

days before the meeting, in order to facilitate the management of

public participation at our meetings. The deadline for registering

at this meeting is 5:00pm on Friday, 4 September 2026.

To register to speak please visit

www.york.gov.uk/AttendCouncilMeetings to fill in an online

registration form. If you have any questions about the registration

form or the meeting, please contact Democratic Services.

Contact details can be found at the foot of this agenda.

Webcasting of Public Meetings

Please note that, subject to available resources, this meeting will

be webcast including any registered public speakers who have

given their permission. The meeting can be viewed live and on

demand at www.york.gov.uk/webcasts.

It was reported that there was one registration to speak under the Council’s public participation protocol.

Ben Ffrench spoke on item 6, representing York Green Party. He supported the proposed plans, but noted uneven wealth distribution within the city and specifically the Walmgate area, which he felt created antisocial behaviour leading to demands on the authority such as maintenance requests. He stressed the importance of increasing pride in this area as part of the scheme, and suggested that following recent successes in other parts of the city, there was an opportunity for a more colourful Walmgate, with street art and energy, noting that this was the first area of city that many students and tourists saw when arriving.

Officers have developed a programme of projects to allow delivery of the South Walmgate Masterplan, following an Executive Member Decision to allocate £250k to a Neighbourhood Improvement Programme for Walmgate.

A decision is now sought to approve the final version of the South Walmgate Masterplan, agree to implement a first phase of projects, and amend the existing delegation to procure the design and construction contractors needed. This will allow the development and implementation of a first phase of the South Walmgate Masterplan.

Resolved:

      i.          To approve the final version of the South Walmgate Masterplan.

     ii.          To approve the initial project prioritisation of phase 1 and subsequent phases

   iii.          That approval be given to carry out a procurement process to procure multi-disciplinary design and project delivery teams to deliver the South Walmgate Masterplan in line with the existing financial approvals, and that authority be delegated to the Director of City Development or Director of Housing & Communities as relevant in accordance with their respective functions (in consultation with the Executive Members for Housing, Planning & Safer Communities, the Chief Finance Officer and the Director of Governance or their delegated officers) to take such steps as are necessary to procure, award and enter into the resulting contract(s).

Reasons:

      i.          To enable delivery of a first phase of projects.

     ii.          To ensure transparency and clear decision making around the South Walmgate Masterplan programme.

  iii.          To ensure all grant funding and contractual arrangements are in compliance with the Finance Regs, CPRs, the Procurement Act, PCRs, Subsidy Control Act 2022 and related legislation.

The Head of City Development presented the report assisted by the Regeneration Project Co-ordinator.

Officers noted that the final version of the South Walmgate Masterplan investment aligned with the Willow House redevelopment scheme and set out eight themes and 13 projects to improve existing spaces within the wider area.

Officers confirmed that Executive Members had approved a budget of £250,000 in January 2026 and since that time officers had secured further funding, taking this up to nearly £1,000,000 together with Mayoral Combined Authority and Local Transport Grant funding. They also sought to invest in the space together with Yorkshire Water.

Officers summarised the long-term Masterplan vision; phase one included promotion of active travel improvements and greening with community-backed plans to attract further funding to reinvest for future development. He confirmed that they also intended to proceed with community artwork and addition of colour as suggested by the speaker in Public Participation.

They advised that with Executive Members’ approval, procurement would commence over the autumn of 2026 work would begin later in the calendar year and delivery would follow as soon as possible, with the intention of demonstrating measurable improvement for residents from spring of 2027.

They noted that assuming success in Walmgate, they would be able to take this coordinated neighbourhood investment approach to other areas of the city as well.

The Executive Member for Housing and Safer Communities (Cllr Merrett) welcomed the report, thanking officers and his predecessor for their hard work on the scheme.

He asked to what extent officers were confident that they could work within the stated budget to deliver all of the works for phase one of the scheme.

The Head of City Development responded that he was confident that a sizable amount of the scheduled works would be deliverable within the available budget, though he noted that the transport side could be capital-heavy and it was only once works were tendered that they would know for sure.

The Executive Member for Housing and Safer Communities asked about the potential of bidding for further funds to become available, since quite a lot of the security improvements were potentially linked to those further projects.

The Head of City Development responded that officers had begun early conversations with North Yorkshire Police around how investment would be coordinated, and while there were no other immediate sources he anticipated other opportunities would arise going forward.

Resolved:

      i.          To approve the final version of the South Walmgate Masterplan.

     ii.          To approve the initial project prioritisation of phase 1 and subsequent phases

   iii.          That approval be given to carry out a procurement process to procure multi-disciplinary design and project delivery teams to deliver the South Walmgate Masterplan in line with the existing financial approvals, and that authority be delegated to the Director of City Development or Director of Housing & Communities as relevant in accordance with their respective functions (in consultation with the Executive Members for Housing, Planning & Safer Communities, the Chief Finance Officer and the Director of Governance or their  ...  view the full minutes text for item 33.

This report provides the Executive Member for Finance, Performance, Major Projects, Human Rights, Equality and Inclusion and theExecutive Member for Children, Young People and Education with the Financial Inclusion/Welfare Benefits outturn report 2025/26 and ongoing work in 2026/27.

The Council approved a 10-year city-wide anti-poverty strategy in November 2025. The ambition is to fight poverty in York and its impacts now and in the future. Looking to establish the conditions that would make the city of York a healthier, fairer, more affordable, more sustainable and more accessible place, where everyone feels valued, creating more regional opportunities to help today’s residents and benefit future generations.

Resolved:   To note and comment on the details of the report in relation to the support provided to residents affected by the impacts of the continuing high cost of living.

Reason:      To ensure councillors, residents and stakeholder groups are aware of the ongoing financial inclusion activity across the city.

[Cllr Merrett left the meeting at 10:14am]

The Director of Housing and Community Services presented the item, assisted by The Head of Customer Finance Risk and Insurance and The Welfare Benefits and Strategic Partnership Manager.

The Director of Housing and Community Services explained that the report outlined the support provided by the council and its partners for residents facing significant financial pressures arising from the cost of living, housing, affordability, health inequalities, and wider economic challenges; spanning welfare benefits, advice, services, digital inclusion, community support, crisis assistant and partnership working across the city.

She noted that there was a major focus on income maximisation and welfare advice, and welfare benefits officers and community-based benefit advisers had secured residents millions of pounds in increased welfare entitlement. She stated that the availability of data allowed easier targeting here and the amount of funding represented an overall reduction, so they were making less go further, therefore effective partnership working was increasingly important.

The Head of Customer Finance Risk and Insurance added that this programme of work had been developed over several years. There had been a small decrease in the number of families living in poverty, and the Household Support Fund’s work had directly impacted the figures.

He added that officers were not just using this system for paying out Household Support Fund and Crisis and Resilience Fund benefits but they could also track Healthy Start and other programmes with it. Support around food and fuel vouchers was ongoing, with a more person-centred approach. All residents of working age in receipt of benefits had now migrated to Universal Credit but not everyone was yet claiming household support, which was one point to flag.

The Executive Member for Finance, Performance, Major Projects and Equalities congratulated officers and partners, stating that this was a good opportunity to make life better for many residents and it was important to work with partners and share intelligence to this end. She asked officers to provide her with further information on the figures on reduction of families in poverty. She acknowledged that many families were feeling financial pressure and council were helping with this. She praised use of Lift data for Highlighted targeted support and the work of Welfare Benefits Officers in making real genuine improvement with £2.2 million across 400 residents and she highlighted crucial role of digital inclusion.   

She also highlighted less visible work by the wider community  such as warm spaces in winter and Cool Spaces in Summer schemes and highlighted York Hungry Minds – specifically for their holiday scheme.

Resolved:   To note and comment on the details of the report in relation to the support provided to residents affected by the impacts of the continuing high cost of living.

Reason:      To ensure councillors, residents and stakeholder groups are aware of the ongoing financial inclusion activity across the city.