Shareholder Committee

12 October 2026

Report of the Director of City Development

Make It York Update

Purpose of Report

1.        To consider reports from Make It York (MIY) on the company’s financial performance since the last report in February 2026.  Included within the MIY report is a copy of the management accounts for the four months up to July 2026 and an update of financial and non-financial performance for the trading period April to September 2026.

Recommendations

2.        The committee is asked to note the MIY Shareholder Report at Annex A and the supporting documents from Appendix 1 to Appendix 6 supplied by MIY.

·     Appendix 1a – MiY Audited Accounts 2025-6

·     Appendix 1b – Management Accounts report incorporating Profit & Loss statement, Balance Sheet and Cashflow forecast – July 2026 (Confidential)

·     Appendix 2 – Board Recruitment

·     Appendix 3 – SLA Strategic Linkages & Key Performance Date dashboard

·     Appendix 4 – Risk Register for period July 2026 – September 2026

·     Appendix 5 – SLA for period September 2026 – September 2027

 

Reason: to ensure the Council is updated on the financial and wider performance of Make It York.

Background and analysis

3.        On 14th March 2024, the Council’s Executive agreed to enter into a further two-year extension of the Service Contract with MIY[1].  A new service specification (or SLA as it is informally referred to) was negotiated between the Council and the MIY board laid out under the following headings:    

·          Destination Management Organisation: promotion of York as a leisure and business visitor destination.

·          Visitor Sector Development: working with visitor sector businesses to improve York centre as a destination.

·          Tourism Advisory Board: convene and facilitate TAB for York and take a lead in the development, delivery, and monitoring of the new tourism strategy.

·          Markets: Development of a new markets strategy whilst operating the Shambles Market and management of the Market Charter on behalf of the whole city.

·          Commercial Events: run safe, sustainable and accessible event programme to support economic growth and promote York, including specialist markets, local and community events in the city centre and other key event spaces.

·          City Centre Vibrancy: contribute to the Our City strategy by development of a Spaces and Places Policy that improves how the city centre works, collaborating with partners.

·          Culture: Help to deliver the culture strategy along with other partners to enable an ambitious and cohesive programme of cultural development for the city covering the arts, heritage and creative industries from the spaces managed by MIY. 

·          Events Framework: A city-wide Events Framework consistent with the aims of the cultural strategy that enables the city proactively to identify the events that it wishes to host and attract and enables the Council to respond in an informed way when opportunities are brought forward. 

·          UNESCO Designation: Ensure the people of York understand and appreciate the importance of York’s UNESCO Creative City of Media Arts status and maximise its impact. Through promotion on the Visit York and Make It York Website. 

4.        The new SLA and the extension came into effect on 23rd September 2024. The Service Contract expires on 22nd September 2027, having been extended for its final year through a variation signed 20th August 2026. A report is being prepared for Executive setting out future contracting arrangements beyond September 2027 when the current contract expires.

5.        The SLA sets out key deliverables, outcomes by which performance will be measured, and detailed delivery tasks. The SLA was iterated for this final year of operation under the existing contract to include the facilitation of community events, and is provided at Appendix 5 to Annex A.

6.        Executive agreed that MIY should report to the Shareholder Committee twice a year as follows:

Approval of the annual business plan (in light of agreed SLA priorities): February/ March

 

 

 

 

 


Update on progress against the business plan and identification of issues: October

 

 

 

 

 

 

Key Company Matters

Business plan update

7.        MIY have produced the update report shown at Annex A and Appendix 3 that provides a summary against the approved business plan. Confidential Appendix 2 to Annex A proposes the recruitment of an additional non-executive director to the Make it York board, Professor Brendan Paddison.

Financial update

8.        The audited accounts for 2024/25 shown at Annex A, Appendix 1a, confirms MIY as a going concern.  This strong financial performance has improved MIY total equity at the year-end to £668,200.

9.        Overall, the business remains in a strong financial position, with positive income performance, continued focus on cost management and planned efficiencies providing a solid outlook for the remainder of the financial year. The full details can be seen in confidential Appendix 1b.

10.    MIY have worked closely with officers to monitor the company’s ongoing financial position and continue to provide bi-monthly updates, to ensure early warnings should this positive financial position change. 

11.    The Shareholder Committee can be reassured that officers will continue to work closely with MIY to monitor the financial position.

SLA Refresh

12.    Under the Service Contract with MIY, it allows for an SLA refresh each year, to ensure the SLA remains up to date and can accommodate changes if required.  The following minor changes have been proposed, but with the overall structure remaining the same as last year:

a.   Building in activity around facilitation of Community Events

b.   Removing out of date outcomes/outputs

c.   Replacing or rewording outputs/outcomes

d.   Making changes to key performance measures where lessons have been learned from 24-25 reporting

Risk Management

13.    There are no specific risk issues arising from this report beyond those highlighted in the text.

Implications

14.    There are no additional legal, HR, equalities, crime and disorder, information technology, property or other implications or decisions arising from this report.

Annexes

Annex A – Make It York Shareholder Report

Appendix 1a – MIY Audited account 2025/26 (confidential)

Appendix 1b – Management Accounts report incorporating Profit & Loss statement, Balance Sheet and Cashflow forecast – July 2026 (confidential)

Appendix 2 – Appointment of new director (confidential)

Appendix 3 – SLA Strategic Linkages & Key Performance Data dashboard

Appendix 4 – MIY Strategic Risk Register quarter 2 update

Annex B– Updated SLA for period September 2026 – September 2027

Background Papers

Executive Decision 14th March 2024 - https://democracy.york.gov.uk/ieDecisionDetails.aspx?AIId=66936

Shareholder committee 2 February 2026 Item 29 - https://democracy.york.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=929&MId=15039&Ver=4

Author:

Chief Officer responsible for the report:

Ben Murphy

City Head of Placeshaping & Growth

Garry Taylor, Director of City Development

Report Approved

✓

Date

29/09/26

Wards Affected:  All

 

For further information please contact the author of the report

 


[1] https://democracy.york.gov.uk/ieDecisionDetails.aspx?AIId=66936