Member Article

York Central makes Government shortlist

YORK’S biggest brownfield site has made it on to a shortlist to get Government help to be developed.

The York Central site is one of 29 sites across England in the running to become the Government’s 10 housing zones where Ministers say it will be easier and quicker to build new homes on brownfield land.

Most housing zones are expected to be big enough for between 750 and 2,000 homes, but could be larger.

Successful bids were submitted by councils working with developers, who were invited to bid for a share of £200 million for infrastructure and land remediation to get their ideas off the ground.

Successful zones will also have access to cheaper borrowing from the Public Works Loan Board and priority access to expert planning and technical support from the ATLAS service run by the Homes and Communities Agency.

Cllr Dafydd Williams, leader of City of York Council said making it into the final selection would bring “valuable support and funding” to the York Central project, and help bring significant economic opportunity to the city.

“The status would provide a real boost to the progress we’ve made already in unlocking this key brownfield site for much-needed housing development in the city”.

The news has also been welcomed by Conservative candidate for the York Central constituency Robert McIlveen - who said the Government support would help unlock the difficult site.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Robert Beaumont .