Plans to Accelerate Affordable Home Delivery on the Yorkshire Coast

North Yorkshire Council is set to consider a joint venture with Lovell Partnerships Ltd to build more than 600 new properties, including 226 affordable homes, in Scarborough and Whitby.

Plans to speed up the delivery of affordable homes to meet growing demand in North Yorkshire are set to be considered by councillors.

North Yorkshire Council is proposing to enter into a joint venture with housing developer Lovell Partnerships Ltd to build more homes across the county.

The planned scheme would help accelerate the delivery of high-quality, environmentally sustainable homes with a strong focus on affordable housing, particularly in coastal areas.

Under the proposal, the council and Lovell would work as equal partners in a fifty-fifty limited liability partnership. They would share the risks and rewards, while unlocking the potential to deliver new homes, infrastructure and green spaces at pace.

The Government has set the council a target of delivering more than 4,000 new homes a year, and the joint venture would support this ambition. Affordable homes delivered through the proposed partnership would be taken on by the authority in its role as a social landlord, contributing to its aim to increase its housing stock by at least 500 new homes.

The procurement set out to establish a joint venture vehicle for thirty years with a potential contract value of up to £3.9 billion. This means the council can utilise the partnership for more sites than those initially identified.

As part of the planned partnership, two sites that are already allocated for development could deliver more than 600 new properties, including 226 affordable homes.

The first sites earmarked for development are at Sandsend Road in Whitby and Eastfield in Scarborough.

At Sandsend Road, sixty homes would be built, with eighteen designated as affordable in line with planning policy. At Eastfield, approximately 548 homes could be developed, of which 196 would be affordable.

A further site at Rievaulx Road in Whitby has also been identified as a potential future pipeline site. The joint venture would be given an exclusivity period for this site to work up viable schemes.

Coastal communities are particularly affected by a lack of affordable housing, as second home ownership and holiday lets push up rents and house prices.

Under the refined scheme, North Yorkshire Council would provide land for development, which Lovell would match in value through development funding. Profits would then be shared equally between the two organisations after the repayment of funding.

North Yorkshire Council’s executive member for housing, Councillor Simon Myers, said:

"This proposed partnership gives us a real opportunity to have greater control and help us better shape how new homes are delivered across the county.

"By working with a trusted partner and using land we already own, we can accelerate the delivery of high-quality housing, including much-needed affordable homes, so that more families have the opportunity to live in the communities they want to.

"Rather than simply selling land to private developers, this approach would also allow us to retain influence over what is built and when – helping us to deliver new homes and the supporting infrastructure they need, while promoting sustainable communities.

"As demand for housing continues to grow, particularly in our coastal and rural areas, this is an important step towards delivering the right homes in the right places for the people of North Yorkshire.

"This will be carefully considered by members of the executive at next week’s meeting."

Lovell would act as the development manager for the joint venture, responsible for appointing consultants and preparing business plans, as well as acting as the principal contractor.

The regeneration and partnerships director for Lovell, Mary Parsons, said:

"Lovell has always been a partnerships developer, working with our public sector partners to deliver the homes that their area needs.

"This proposed joint venture is a great example of this and would enable new homes to be delivered in the county at pace, with both partners committed to maximising the number of new council affordable homes that can be delivered and ensuring that local firms and communities benefit from this major investment."

To oversee the partnership, a joint venture board has been proposed which would comprise three representatives from the council and three from Lovell. The council proposes appointing its corporate director for community development, the assistant director resource for environment, and the assistant director of legal operations to the board.

Among the recommendations to be presented to the council’s executive committee when they meet on Tuesday next week (July 14), is a proposal to use up to £5 million of initial capital and revenue receipts from the joint venture to create a council budget to support the partnership.

The proposed joint venture builds on earlier work carried out by the former Scarborough Borough Council, which originally identified Lovell as its preferred partner through a formal tender process.