North Yorkshire housing issues leading to a ‘haemorrhaging’ of young people from rural areas, says Yorkshire Housing CEO

His comments come as the partnership pushes for the adoption of a long term housing plan for the region ahead of the upcoming York and North Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority election in May.

Mr Atkin said: “We know North Yorkshire has a proud heritage for having lots of beautiful rural areas, but that doesn’t hide the fact that the cost-of-living crisis and a lack of affordable housing is forcing young people out of those places.

“Our concern as a partnership is that if we fail to address the problem and stem that haemorrhaging of young people from rural areas, we’re going to drive out the people who are the beating heart at the centre of our rural communities and economy, and that puts the future of some of those communities at significant risk.”

Figures from the Campaign to Protect Rural England’s Countryside Charter show that 72 per cent of young people living in rural areas say that affordable housing is their top concern, with 84 per cent of those who want to leave citing it as an important factor in their decision making.

North Yorkshire has also been found to be one of the least affordable areas for housing outside the South of England. A report by the North Yorkshire Rural Commission issued in 2021 found that in some areas of the region, residents would need to pay up to 10 times their annual salary to afford a home.

In York, the City Council has identified a need for 592 new affordable homes to be built every year. The total number of affordable homes built in the city over the past five years, however, stands at 648.

Mr Atkin noted that these issues are also leading many graduates to leave the region after studying at university.

He said: “I think there's a whole raft of challenges for young people, but the challenge of housing affordability is without a shadow of a doubt impacting the proportion of graduates who are retained in the area.

“People come here to study and love living here, but they are forced out of the region because they can't access good quality affordable housing.”

York and North Yorkshire Housing Partnership was formed last year, and is made up of the 23 housing associations which operate across the region.

In January of last year, the group launched a Housing Prospectus to set out its offer to support the new devolved structures in York and North Yorkshire.

Mr Atkin said that the group hopes the incoming York and North Yorkshire Mayor will make housing a key priority once elected.

He said: “My message to the Mayor would be that we must start with housing, and invest in a long term plan for housing which can help York and North Yorkshire thrive. In our view, it has to be an election priority for all of the mayoral candidates.”

North Yorkshire Council is soon set to launch a five-year housing plan following a public consultation period which ended in December. A previously released draft strategy included proposals to deliver almost 13,000 new homes in the region.