Never give up: Twelve year quest to create affordable and sustainable homes in York is fulfilled
York is the jewel in Yorkshire’s crown thanks to its beautiful historic buildings, its racecourse and, of course, its magnificent Minster along with a railway station with trains that can take you in central London in 1h 47m on the fastest services.
Its proximity to the coast is also a big draw and yet what makes the city and its suburbs special has sent house prices through the roof with many first time buyers and others on low to average wages unable to get on the property ladder.
It is a community of haves who can afford to buy a home and have nots who pay a small fortune in rent leaving them unable to save for a deposit on a house of their own.
Now, after a long 12 years, YorSpace, a group initially founded in 2012 by four concerned households who were priced out of home ownership, is spearheading a solution that it hopes can be replicated to provide more affordable and sustainable properties in the city.
“We were initially inspired by LILAC, aka a Low Impact Living Affordable Community, in Leeds, where the homes and land they are built on are managed by residents through a Mutual Home Ownership Society, a financial model that ensures permanent affordability,” says James Neward, a YorSpace founder.
“We spent a couple of years talking about what we could do here in York and tried to purchase a building to convert but that didn’t work out so we formed a Community Land Trust in 2014 and became embroiled in barriers, which was quite stressful and demanding but we carried on.”
York City Council, also keen to have more affordable homes on its patch, backed them and so members of the group persisted and carried on paying most of their wages in rent and hoping there would be a breakthrough.
Their forbearance paid off thanks to a chance to buy a plot of land at Lowfield Green in Acomb. It wasn’t plain sailing but YorSpace managed to secure it and the funding needed to build 19 sustainable homes that would be affordable and remain affordable.
A grant from the Brownfield Housing Fund was key as was funding from a variety of sources including 180 social investors, keen to put their money into making a difference.
Still, tenacity was vital. YorSpace looked into acquiring the site in 2016 and planning permission was granted in 2019 followed by fundraising, site clearance and finally now spades in the ground.
The £4.5million project has faced many challenges, not least the rising price of materials and high interest rates leaving a £900,000 hole in the budget and the first contractor going bust but now YorSpace is delivering York’s first housing co-operative christened Lowfield Green Housing Co-op, builders are busy on site and there has been some good luck.
When Legal and General Homes ceased production of its modular, factory built homes at its site in Yorkshire, it gave five, three bedroom, energy efficient houses to YorSpace for the bargain price of one pound. They were a Godsend that helped balance the books.
“It has taken such a long time to get to this point that we lost members of the group along the way. They moved away to places that were more affordable, where they had a chance of buying a home and that is understandable,” says James, who is now CEO of YorSpace Community Land Trust Ltd.
He and his family bought one of the homes and another household that was part of the YorSpace group from the beginning also has a property, as do other members of the Lowfield Green Co-op.
The YorSpace model offers residents a chance to buy a house at 75 per cent of the market value and keeps the land in community hands forever so the homes will always be more affordable than similar sized properties in the city.
There is an allocation policy which states that the homes should be sold to those living and working in York who are in housing need and those who are renting but the caveat is that they must embrace the ethos of the housing co-op.
The 19 houses with timber frames and timber and slate cladding are being built by PureHaus to Passivhaus standards, with high levels of insulation and airtightness, which will reduce co2 emissions and energy bills, making them affordable to run.
“There is no gas on site, only electricity and we are hoping that North Yorkshire and North East Net Zero will help us with finding funding towards solar panels and battery storage,” says James.
Sue, a member of Lowfield Green Housing Co-op, who has bought one of the houses, says: “I really want to live in this community, know who my neighbours are and share resources and reduce our collective carbon footprint."
The three terrace blocks with two, three and four-bed houses should be complete by early summer next year. Car sharing is encouraged and communal gardens will be used for growing food.
They will have private gardens but the properties all face into a car-free street designed to bring the community together and obliterate loneliness.
YorSpace is keen to advice others who want to follow its lead. Visit www.yorspace.org. Lowfield Green Co-op www.lowfieldgreencoop.uk