A Plan for York

York is an affluent city with large wealth inequality. High property prices and corporate wealth hide the fact that many residents struggle with a high cost of living and low-wage jobs. York is one of the richest cities in Northern England. However, a 10-year life expectancy gap exists between rich and poor areas.

York’s population of 209,301 is made up of 85,459 households. Just over two thirds live in the built up area of the city, the rest in outlying villages and settlements. The population consists of working people (45%), retired (18%), children (15%), students (13%) and the economically inactive (8%), who may be carers, disabled or simply unemployed.

65% of York’s households are owner occupiers, with 37% owning their homes outright with no mortgage. These are slightly higher than averages for England and Wales. 14% of York’s households are socially renting and 20% are renting privately. 0.8% have shared ownership and 0.1% pay no rent.

Typically outright owners are aged 65+. Those with mortgages are in the 35-49 age range. Social renters are typically under 50, with a large proportion in the 16-34 range. Private renters are in the 16-34 age range.

Voting intensity varies by age and the type of housing tenure. Young renters vote least. Middle-aged mortgage owners have moderate to high turnout. Older outright owners dominate the electorate that actually votes.

Conflicts of interest

There is a conflict between poorer and younger York citizens and the more affluent and older citizens. The young and the poor would benefit from cheaper housing. Older and affluent home owners benefit from higher housing prices – so do land owners.

York homeowners benefit if house building targets are low because that helps to keep the value of their houses high. Landowners earmarked for housing on their land under a local plan also benefit. The York that was approved in 2025 kept to a low target for house building. Minutes of the Local Plan Working Group in July 2017 included:

“The housing figure of 867 dwellings per annum was accepted, based on ONS and DCLG population and household projections. The recommendation by GL Hearn to apply a further 10% market signals uplift (to 953 dwellings per annum) was rejected as speculative and attaching insufficient weight to York’s special character.”

With the update of the National Planning Policy Framework, the government has made new housing targets mandatory and raised them, removing the previous flexibility. This will include a substantial rise in targets where the Housing Affordability Ratio is high. This ratio is very high in York. York plans will need to have higher targets for home building.

Government targets

The current UK government has pledged to deliver 1.5 million new homes in England within five years. That’s 300,000 per year, equal to 1.2% of the housing stock per year. The 2025 York Local Plan is for 1% per year.

However, are government targets good enough? A recent estimate suggests a UK deficit of approximately 6.5 million homes compared to European averages. To bridge this gap by 2040, the construction about 565,000 homes annually would be needed. That’s expanding the housing supply by 1.9% per year. If that was applied to York, it would increase the yearly target to from 1138 (see above) to 1,801 new homes per year, over twice the 882 houses per year in the version of the Local Plan adopted in February 2025.