A ground-breaking design manual for 600 new homes to be delivered across York has been developed. It will set the standard of the new housing from City of York Council’s Housing Delivery Programme, and has been published alongside a progress report on construction, procurement and engagement.
100 years ago, inspired by the light and spacious homes built at New Earswick, a design manual was published as part of the 1919 Housing Act to deliver ‘homes fit for heroes’, and was the origin of building council houses.
Having committed to delivering the largest house building programme directly delivered by the council since the 1970’s, our five-year Housing Delivery Programme has unveiled a design manual which aims to tackle some of the city’s housing, social, health and environmental challenges. It will do so by creating homes which are affordable to rent, buy and run.
This manual will support York’s tradition of pioneering housing delivery. It will seek to address the climate emergency, to create beautiful and distinctive new neighbourhoods, foster sustainable new communities, and provide people of different income levels with a home of which they can be proud and from which they can thrive.
In July 2018, Executive approved the Housing Delivery Programme. The report offers an update on the programme’s progress which includes creating eight new football pitches on the Ashfield Estate and purchasing the Duncombe Barracks site.
Ahead of design work being undertaken for the planning permission for the Duncombe Barracks and Burnholme sites, residents will be invited to share their insights and ideas with the architects to help shape the new communities. This will begin in early October.
To support open market sales which will help offset the cost of building the affordable homes, a new brand – Shape Homes York – has been developed. Shape Homes York will have a strong digital presence with a dedicated website to support prospective buyers of both outright sale and shared ownership homes with their home ownership journey.
Cllr Denise Craghill, Executive Member for Housing and Safer Neighbourhoods, said:
“I welcome this report on our Housing Delivery Programme, whose ambition is to deliver a wide-reaching and positive legacy for the city.
“The Design Manual enshrines the key principles of creating high-quality homes in communities where accessible open spaces will encourage people to come together.
“We want to create homes in which people are proud to live and where low-carbon lifestyles are promoted. We hope this new manual will influence and raise building standards across the city and beyond.”
Executive takes place on Thursday 26 September and will be webcast live at www.york.gov.uk/webcasts
To find out more about the report, or to attend the Executive meeting, visit: https://democracy.york.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=733&MId=11109.