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Meeting: |
Executive |
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Meeting date: |
4 November 2025 |
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Report of: |
Garry Taylor, Director of City Development |
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Portfolio of: |
Leader, Executive Member for Policy, Strategy and Partnerships |
Decision Report:
York’s Prospectus – Going for Good Growth with Innovation,
Culture and Heritage at our heart
Subject of
Report
1. This report presents York’s response to the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority’s Local Growth Plan, known as York’s Prospectus, Going for Good Growth with Innovation, Culture and Heritage at our heart.
2. The Local Growth Plan sets out York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority’s (YNYCA) commitment to accelerate growth in affordable housing, skills and jobs supported through improved transport and digital infrastructure. It has been developed by the YNYCA in close collaboration with both York and North Yorkshire local authorities and partners.
3. York’s Prospectus sets out York’s response to the Local Growth Plan, detailing opportunities that can have significant local and regional benefit and are designed to improve opportunity for York residents and businesses.
4. Delivering the prospectus can lead to York being a fairer, more accessible, more sustainable and healthier city for all.
5. Executive are invited to approve York’s Prospectus and note progress to date, with officers tasked to progress attracting additional investment from the public or private sectors.
Benefits and Challenges
6. Approving York’s Prospectus (Annex A) in response to the Local Growth Plan, signals a clear commitment that in collaboration with YNYCA, public, private and community partners, we can deliver multiple benefits for residents and businesses, attracting additional investment into economic and housing growth, clean energy, improved environment, digital and transport infrastructure.
7. Delivering the prospectus can reduce congestion, improve health and wellbeing, develop more warm affordable homes that meet the needs of residents, reduce emissions and energy bills, create more jobs for everyone, with more opportunities to develop skills and improve digital connectivity.
8. York’s Prospectus has been developed in collaboration with partners across public and private sector. It reflects York’s strengths, putting innovation at its heart, with a focus on reducing inequalities, building inclusive economic growth and transitioning to net zero. It describes the projects that would collectively deliver the ambitions described in the 10-Year City Plan (2022-2032) and the 10-Year Strategies (Economic, Climate and Joint Health and Wellbeing).
9. Both the Local Growth Plan and York’s Prospectus will take many years for some of the benefits to be realised. There is a risk that issues experienced today will distract from the work to deliver benefits in the future. This could lead to budgets and resources being reallocated, at the risk the opportunities are never fully realised.
10. The Local Growth plan is in response to national policy. There remains a risk that subsequent governments will have a different approach to regional growth, undermining the durability of the plan.
Policy Basis for Decision
11. York’s Prospectus has been designed to deliver several key policies for the city. It will steer delivery over decades and as a result, it has embedded the vision articulated in the 10-year strategies, the Council Plan, and is aligned to national policy such as the Industrial Strategy, Get Britain Working, and 10 Year NHS Plan, and aligns to regional policy set out in the YNYCA Local Growth Plan.
12. York’s 10-Year City Plan[1] reflects the vision set by the 10-year strategies covering the economy, health and wellbeing and climate change. Known as York 2032, the vision states that York will be “a vibrant, prosperous, welcoming and sustainable city, where everyone can share and take pride in its success.”
13. The Council Plan 2023-2027[2] takes a step towards the 10-Year Plan, by setting out a vision and series of actions that would “establish the conditions to 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.”
14. The prospectus focuses on delivering EACH, the four core commitments:
· Equalities: the proposals provide opportunity for all, with many targeting areas of deprivation
· Affordability: More affordable housing will be delivered both by Unlocking the Local Plan, and developing a new pipeline of the next Housing Delivery Programme
· Climate: enhancing the environment and delivering greater sustainability measures, including an ambition to be the UK’s first net exporter of renewable energy are included in the prospectus
· Health: All the proposals will contribute to reducing health inequalities through providing more and better jobs, more affordable safe housing and greater social connections, with Health in All Policies included in the design principles.
15. The Local Growth Plan, and York’s Prospectus, have both been informed by the Mayoral Pipeline of Proposals, approved by the Leader in July 2024, and informed by the 10-Year City Plan and Strategies together with the Council Plan ambitions and partner aspirations. Council Members, via a Corporate Scrutiny Committee meeting on 8 September, have also informed the development of the prospectus.
Financial Strategy Implications
16. Delivering York’s Growth Ambitions will be funded through investment from bodies external to CYC (for example YNYCA, government departments, private and public sector partners, etc.). This means delivery is predicated on identifying and securing this external investment. Should this investment not be secured, then the proposals outlined in the York Prospectus will not be delivered.
17. The Council’s medium term financial position identifies that savings will continue to be needed in order to balance the Council’s budget each year.
Recommendation and Reasons
18. Executive is recommended to approve York’s Prospectus (Annex A):
· Reason: York’s Prospectus is York’s response to the Local Growth Plan. It is a continuation of the approved Mayoral Pipeline of Proposals. It has been developed in collaboration with city partners and sets out a series of projects that would support both delivery of the Local Growth Plan and 10-Year City Plan and Strategies.
Rejecting York’s Prospectus would mean council officers did not have a guide of priority projects to proactively attract investment into the city, with the risk that residents miss out on significant benefits as a result.
Background
19. York’s Prospectus is bold and ambitious. To demonstrate the scale of the ambition, York’s Prospectus aims to deliver approximately 3,000 more homes and over 750 more jobs, together with enhanced health and community services, world-class innovation, culture and heritage and accessible and inclusive adult skills pathways inspired by the research and innovation taking place across the city.
20. York’s Prospectus is a continuation of the Mayoral Pipeline of Proposals, approved by the Leader in July 2024. The projects are rooted in the York Narrative[3], and the ambitions articulated in The Council Plan 2023-2027 and York 2032, the 10-Year City Plan. The prospectus reflects the city-wide engagement and collaboration that led to these key strategies.
21. It has been developed to respond to the Local Growth Plan, recently approved by YNYCA, which is in response to the national Industrial Strategy[4].
22. The projects within the prospectus are the economic, skills, transport, housing, and environmental projects that will collectively make the biggest impact to the quality of life for residents, improving health and reducing inequalities.
23. The prospectus describes the design principles that will be inherent through delivery of all the proposals, such as how the council will work in partnership with communities to deliver the projects, ensuring co-design is at the heart of the changes we facilitate or lead.
24. In addition, by embedding the social value outcome framework[5] into delivery, York residents will further benefit from investment directed into apprenticeship, training, environmental and community projects.
Benefits of York’s Prospectus
25. York’s Prospectus aims to ensure that York residents benefit from having an affordable safe, warm, home in the city they are proud to call home, a job they are trained and supported to do, improved and earlier access to community health and wellbeing services to prevent health issues getting worse, and reduced traffic congestion.
26. York itself will benefit from greater global and national recognition of the role it plays in driving key economic sectors and its social research that actively improves the lives of residents across the country, together with cementing York’s status at the heart of cultural heritage. It aims to attract greater interest and investment in the city. In addition, the city will benefit from reduced carbon emissions and greater biodiversity and enhanced green spaces.
27. The Council will benefit from more residents living longer healthier lives in their own homes. This will reduce pressure on statutory services, such as social care, homelessness and community support. Over time, realising these benefits will support the council become more financially resilient, potentially protecting council discretionary services for residents to enjoy (such as leisure and cultural services).
28. Research is currently being undertaken to identify the full economic and social value of the projects in the prospectus. Once complete, this will be brought to an Executive Member Decision Session for review.
Delivering York’s Prospectus
29. Once approved, the council will establish a programme to deliver York’s Prospectus as investment is identified, attracted and unlocked. The programme will report into the City Development Board with quarterly reports to Executive.
30. York’s Prospectus is designed as a “live” document. As projects more from development to delivery, new projects will be included in the document. This allows officers to quickly respond to investment opportunities, whilst ensuring York’s interests are best represented. The process to continue to update and keep the ambitions relevant will be through the programme.
31. York’s Prospectus sets out the proposals that would deliver for the city. However, it is critically important that design principles are developed by the programme in consultation with partners and residents and that these reflect the vision of an affordable, accessible, sustainable, inclusive city where everyone feels valued. This means including co-design with community groups, residents, businesses and partners on individual proposals.
32. In addition, to ensure the outcomes set out in the prospectus are delivered, the council will work with partners to agree and publish an outcome framework, including how it will be monitored.
33. A programme plan, proposed governance structure and approach will be presented to the Leader for consideration at an Executive Member Decision within the next three months. This includes the process to approve design principles to ensure the council plan’s four core commitments (EACH) is delivered by the different projects.
Development process
34. In December 2024, the English Devolution White paper was published. It describes how Mayoral Strategic Authorities will include consolidated funding to deliver local growth covering a wide portfolio of responsibilities, including, transport, local growth, place, housing and regeneration, skills, and non-apprenticeship adult skills, together with integrated health and wellbeing.
35. The Local Growth Plan priorities were developed in collaboration with York and North Yorkshire and based on robust evidence and a demonstration of the region’s unique strengths. They were approved at York and North Yorkshire’s Combined Authority meeting in July 2025 and broadly reflected in the Industrial Strategy Green Paper.
36. The Industrial Strategy Green Paper was consulted on throughout the autumn, with the council submitting a response to the consultation and contributing to a stakeholder roundtable event in January.
37. The prospectus itself draws the experience of this process together with the Mayoral Pipeline approved by the Leader in July 2024 and ongoing co-design with partners in the city. The proposals in the pipeline were designed to attract significant government funding to accelerate growth over the next decade.
38. The proposals in the pipeline were then reframed to demonstrate how they aligned to the Mayoral vision and presented to the Mayor in December 2024 as York’s Growth Ambitions, to inform the final version of the Local Growth Plan.
39. The proposals were stress tested with city partners and then considered by Corporate Scrutiny Committee, with the final version articulated in York’s Prospectus.
Consultation Analysis
40. York’s Prospectus, the response to the Local Growth Plan, were co-designed with officers across the council. It was initially informed by the Mayoral Pipeline of Proposals which Scrutiny Committees were consulted on in 2024, together with discussion with key partners.
41. The proposals were presented to the Mayoral Combined Authority in December 2024 for their consideration for inclusion in the Local Growth Plan as it developed.
42. It was discussed with several partners who contributed their own aspirations, including during City Leader events in January, April and June 2025.
43. The Corporate Scrutiny Committee discussed York’s Prospectus in September 2025, suggesting several amendments now contained within the prospectus whilst also reflecting the need for clarity around economic and social value of the projects identified in the prospectus to enable prioritisation to take place.
Options Analysis and Evidential Basis
44. There are two options presented to Executive for consideration:
1) Approve York’s Prospectus
2) Reject York’s Prospectus
Executive are recommended to approve option 1, approve York’s Prospectus
45. There are significant resident and business benefits realised through delivery of York’s Prospectus which, over time, would support the council focus services on most need, and become more resilient as a result of residents living longer and happier lives.
46. Rejecting the prospectus would mean there is no clear steer on the areas for investment that matter most, with residents and businesses potentially missing out on significant benefits. The council would not have the tools to attract investment where it’s needed most, bringing a potential risk that the ongoing and rising cost of living in the city causes more residents to seek council support, with no plans in place to resolve.
Organisational
Impact and Implications
· Financial - This report outlines the ambition for the city, with a number of very complex, high value potential projects outlined in the annex to the report. There are no immediate financial implications for the Council because there is an assumption that external funding will be secured to deliver on this ambition. This external funding will therefore need to cover all the costs to the Council, including the finance, procurement and legal costs associated with what is a wide range of very significant projects. Should external funding not be secured, or if it was not able to fund delivery costs such as support services, then the scheme would not be able to progress. We are unable to accept funding that would ultimately increase the Council’s running costs.
· Human Resources (HR) - There are no HR implications contained within this report.
· Legal - Any works, supplies of goods and/or services relevant to the projects within the Prospectus must be commissioned in line with the Council’s Contract Procedure Rules and (where applicable) the Procurement Act 2023. Any external grant funding for the projects detailed within the Prospectus must be compliant with the Subsidy Control Act 2022. All contracts and grant funding terms and conditions will require the advice and input of Legal Services
·
Procurement, Whilst there are no direct
procurement implications relating to report itself, procurement
will be a main tool used to deliver some of the upcoming priorities
through contracts. Should any priorities require procurement, all
works and/or services must be procured via a compliant, open,
transparent, and fair process in accordance with the
council’s Contract Procedure Rules and where applicable, the
Procurement Act 2023. Further advice regarding the procurement
process and development of procurement strategies must be sought
from the Commercial Procurement team.
· Health and Wellbeing - York Prospectus includes a range of opportunities which, if adopted, may bring significant health benefits for residents. These include direct benefits such as improved access to health services and active travel opportunities, and indirect benefits such as provision of quality housing and creation of jobs both of which are important for good health. As not all projects will bring equal benefits from a health perspective, health implications of specific projects may need to be revisited further down the line.
· Environment and Climate action - To meet our climate change ambitions and support sustainable growth, it is crucial that we decouple economic growth and greenhouse gas emissions. The Growth plan proposes priority projects that support this aim and the wider climate change ambitions for the city.”
“The Growth Plan” supports the ambitions of the York Climate Change Strategy, specifically objectives 2.3 Move away from fossil fuel heating systems, 3.2 Increase uptake of active travel and public transport, 5.3 Grow the green economy, 7.1 Increase renewable energy generation.”
· Affordability - The strategy reflects activity to improve affordability in the city for residents and is therefore a positive development for the city.
· Equalities and Human Rights, The equalities impacts are assessed within the EIA provided.
· Communications, The delivery of the York prospectus will be supported by the proposed multi-agency joint communications approach, set out within the council’s draft communications strategy 2025-27. This seeks to focus the joint communications resource of key partners across the city to support the issues of highest priority citywide. The prospectus helps to inform this programme. The council’s communications team will continue to work alongside communications colleagues from the combined authority to ensure a coordinated approach to key projects, as appropriate.
· Economy: The prospectus sets out a bold and ambitious pipeline of transformative projects and programmes for the City, that through collaborative action and investment with partners including the mayoral Combined Authority and government, will play a crucial role in helping York to grow and develop in a way that optimises benefits, minimises impacts and best meets the needs of our communities. The collegiate approach to the development of the prospectus is particularly welcomed, and its place in helping to shape our economic growth and support our most marginalised and deprived communities is warmly anticipated.
Risks and Mitigations
Financial/funding: York’s Prospectus is bold and ambitious, setting the city on a journey that will take place over the decades ahead. There is a risk that actions will not be delivered due to the scale of funding required and as a result benefits will not be realised. By taking a programme approach it is anticipated that robust business cases will be developed with strategic and systems partners, in response to government policy and private sector investment outcomes, to attract the funding needed.
Reputational: York’s Prospectus is designed to ensure it best represents York’s interests. There is a risk that it simply does not deliver its ambition, undermining the credibility of the approach. Council officers will work closely with partners, including the Combined Authority to both support delivery, and report on progress including sharing barriers and issues.
Partnerships York’s Prospectus includes ambitious plans articulated by partners to meet their outcomes as part of the wider system of improving resident’s lives and businesses opportunities. To ensure delivery realises the benefits, the council will continue to work closely with partners, providing support to overcome barriers as part of the programme.
Economic sectors Not all of York’s important economic sectors are represented in the Local Growth Plan. This is because it is based on the priority sectors represented in the National Industrial Strategy. Examples include Tourism and Hospitality. York’s Prospectus addresses this by representing the city and the council will continue working with partners and representative bodies to identify new ways to help strengthen these sectors.
Wards Impacted all
Contact details
For further information please contact the authors of this Decision Report.
Author
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Name: |
Claire Foale |
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Job Title: |
Chief Strategy Officer |
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Service Area: |
Strategy |
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Telephone: |
01904 552057 |
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Report approved: |
Yes |
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Date: |
24/10/2025 |
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Name: |
Sam Blyth |
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Job Title: |
Head of City Strategy and Corporate Programmes |
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Service Area: |
Strategy |
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Telephone: |
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Report approved: |
Yes |
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Date: |
24/10/2025 |
Specialist officers:
Pauline Stuchfield, Director of Communities and Housing
Dave Atkinson, Director of Environment and Regulatory Services
Shaun
Gibbons, Head of Carbon Reduction
Background papers
English Devolution White Paper : English Devolution White Paper - GOV.UK
The UK’s Industrial Strategy Invest 2035: the UK’s modern industrial strategy - GOV.UK
Regional Economic Framework: Economic Framework: Guiding Prosperity in York & North Yorkshire
Combined Authority approve Local Growth Priorities: 241002-YNYCA-Item-5-York-and-North-Yorkshire-Combined-Authority-Strategic-Growth-Priorities.pdf
Combined Authority approve The Local Growth Plan Agenda for York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority on Friday, 18th July, 2025, 3.00 pm - York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority > Mayoral Combined Authority item 8
Council approves 10-Year Plan (York 2032) and Strategy and Policy Framework Agenda for Council on Thursday, 15 December 2022, 6.30 pm (york.gov.uk) item 36
Council approves the Council Plan 2023-2027 Agenda for Council on Thursday, 21 September 2023, 6.30 pm (york.gov.uk) item 6
Executive approves updated Strategy and Policy Framework and the Local Transport Strategy 2024-2040 Agenda for Executive on Thursday, 18 July 2024, 4.30 pm item 16:
Leader approves Mayoral Pipeline of Proposals: Agenda for Decision Session - Executive Leader, Policy, Strategy and Partnerships on Wednesday, 17 July 2024, 10.00 am item 5
Scrutiny reviews York’s response to the Local Growth Plan Agenda for Economy, Place, Access and Transport Scrutiny Committee on Tuesday, 10 December 2024, 5.30 pm item 5
Scrutiny reviews York’s Prospectus Agenda for Corporate Scrutiny Committee on 8 September 2025, 5:30pm item 6
Abbreviations
YNYCA – York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority
Annexes
Annex A: York’s Prospectus – Going for Good Growth with Innovation, Culture and Heritage at our heart
Annex B: Equalities Impact Assessment