These themes represent what housing is all about; it is not just about the bricks and mortar. It is about our people and places, and how we can as a Council, with our partners, use our resources to support them.
3. Theme One: Our People
‘Our People’ is about meeting the housing needs of our population and particularly our older households, homeless households, those threatened with homelessness, and households with support needs. It also includes specific groups such as Refugees, and Asylum Seekers.
Our key priorities for this theme are:
· Preventing and tackling homelessness
· Recognising the needs of our population at different life stages
· Meeting supported housing needs and the needs of specific groups
3.1 Preventing and tackling homelessness
Homelessness is a growing problem across North Yorkshire, exacerbated by the pandemic, and the on-going cost of living crisis. In addition, the supply of affordable housing in both the private rented and social rented sectors has significantly declined in the last three years. Despite these challenges we have achieved some successes in preventing homelessness, by taking proactive approaches to prevention and seeking innovative accommodation solutions.
As significant pressure remains, with sharp rises in the number of homeless assessments in some areas (Craven locality 71% increase from 2021 to 2022; Richmondshire locality over 250% increase from 17 to 60 in same period).
By far the biggest impact has been the increased use of temporary accommodation for homeless households and the consequent increase in spending. As an example, the cost of providing temporary accommodation in the Scarborough locality increased from £281,000 in 2019/20 to £1.1 million in 2021/22. The use and cost of temporary accommodation is likely to remain a pressure because of more households being threatened with homelessness, a reduced supply of “move-on” accommodation in both the private and social rented sectors, constraints on the supply of private rented accommodation, and the continued challenge of housing affordability across North Yorkshire.
We will meet these challenges by:
· Bringing together homelessness prevention and support services across North Yorkshire to tackle homelessness, using a range of prevention tools, best practice, and interventions to prevent homelessness.
· Delivering new, innovative, and existing accommodation solutions, including new temporary housing, and improving support and access to services.
· Doing all we can to reduce rough sleeping in North Yorkshire as much as possible, helping people live independent lives off the street.
· Undertaking a full Homeless Review, leading to a new Homelessness Strategy by 2025.
3.2 Recognising the needs of our population at different life stages
We face a range of demographic challenges in North Yorkshire. On the one hand, we have an ageing population, with currently one in four of our residents aged 65 and over; this is expected to rise to one in three of our residents by 2035. On the other hand, we are seeing a decrease in the working age population, in particular younger families, and households, with the number of persons aged between 30 and 44, decreasing by 6.25% since 2011, which impacts specifically in terms of economic growth and the sustainability of our communities.
In terms of older households, we have had a successful Extra Care programme over the last 20 years. We need to continue to develop similar services and look at new models of Extra Care and other specialised housing for older people.
We recognise that we cannot meet all needs through the provision of new specialist accommodation and many older households will choose to remain living in their own home. Our Home Improvement Agencies (HIAs) will be essential in ensuring that as many older residents as possible are supported to live independently.
We know that some of our Council housing stock, which was developed specifically for older people, is not fit for purpose anymore and is becoming hard to let. We will update this stock to ensure that it meets the needs of our older households.
For younger households and families, we need to ensure that we are developing affordable accommodation, which is suitable for their needs. We also need to ensure that we are developing this accommodation in the right places, to support communities, retain local services, and help meet economic growth aspirations.
We will meet these challenges by:
· Updating our extra care offer to meet changing needs, including developing new models of extra care to accommodate smaller schemes in rural areas, supporting those with complex needs, including working age people with learning and physical disabilities, as well as people with dementia.
· Working with Health and Social Care colleagues to ensure a holistic approach to meeting the needs of older people.
· Updating our own homes to provide improved specialist and adaptable housing for older people.
· Developing accommodation to meet the needs of younger households and newly forming households.
3.3 Meeting supported housing needs and the needs of specific groups
Supported housing needs vary across North Yorkshire and include the needs of those with physical and learning disabilities, and residents with mental health issues. 17.5% of residents in North Yorkshire are limited in some way by a health or disability. Whilst some residents with support needs will seek some form of specialist accommodation, many will want to remain living in their own homes.
For those with physical disabilities the Council’s Home Improvement Agencies (HIA) in conjunction with Health and Social Care are well placed to support people living independently, including using Disabled Facilities Grants (DFGs). Better integration with Health and Social Care is key to ensuring that we meet other supported housing needs, including learning difficulties and mental health needs, as well as families with children with disabilities. The Council now has a great opportunity to marry up its resources to meet all supported housing needs.
The retention of a structured housing pathway for care leavers through a partnership with Children and Young Peoples Services is a priority; ensuring that this is resourced effectively going forward.
We have a changing demography across North Yorkshire and recognise that there are a wide and diverse range of supported housing needs, and specific groups that require support. We need to undertake detailed housing needs analysis to better understand those needs and develop actions to meet them.
The need for accommodation and support for displaced people, be they asylum seekers or refugees, is a further aspect of our changing demographics. Displaced people have been housed in hotels and other temporary accommodation across North Yorkshire. There is a need for support to enable people to settle within neighbourhoods and localities, including support to find more permanent accommodation where this is needed.
Not all supported housing needs and the respective needs of specific groups have been identified here. This Strategy sets out our overarching ambition to address the needs of these groups, establishing this as a high-level priority for the Council; specific requirements will be set out within bespoke strategies, such as the Supported Housing Strategy.
We will meet these challenges by:
· Ensuring better integration of health and social care to support community based preventative pathways.
· Enhancing home improvement services to ensure that homes can be adapted to meet the needs of residents, including helping residents to live independently with the aid of assistive technology, including undertaking an options appraisal of all available service delivery models.
· Working together to deliver a more efficient and effective Young Peoples Housing Pathway.
· Undertake further analysis, including housing needs analysis to better understand our changing demographics and communities, and be better able to meet the needs of all groups.
· Supporting refugee resettlement pathways and support services via a dedicated refugee resettlement team.
· Support the development of a new Supported Housing Strategy for North Yorkshire.
4. Theme Two: Our Places
‘Our Places’ is about our towns, villages and neighbourhoods and the housing market challenges they face, and what we can do to tackle them.
Our key priorities for this theme are:
· Growing the supply of affordable and available housing
· Addressing the rural housing crisis
· Supporting communities through neighbourhood renewal and regeneration
4.1 Growing the supply of affordable and available housing
Parts of North Yorkshire have some of the least affordable housing outside the Southeast of England, with property price/household income (after housing costs) ratios averaging 10 times across the whole of North Yorkshire in 2021, even reaching 13 times in the Harrogate locality. The average house price in North Yorkshire had risen to £284,000 in October 2022, an increase of over £100,000 in 12 years.
Affordability is exacerbated by North Yorkshire’s low wage economy; median annual pay is as low as £20,000 in some locations, significantly below the national average of £26,000. This means that fewer local households can afford to purchase a home on the open market and are reliant on other forms of tenure.
Home ownership levels are high in North Yorkshire with almost 70% of households owning their own home (England: 63.75%). By contrast social rented housing accounts for less than 12% of our households (England: 16.6%). In some localities (Craven, Harrogate) it is less than 10%. As a result, we have a chronic lack of affordable housing, particularly in some of our most expensive places to live.
We understand that a lack of access to affordable housing acts as a barrier to economic growth, as well as putting pressure on the delivery of essential services as those on lower income struggle to access housing within our high value constrained housing market. We are already seeing a decrease in the working age population, especially younger households, in many parts of North Yorkshire, which may well worsen because of the continued unaffordability of local housing.
However, increasing the supply of new housing of all types, is not simply about numbers. The quality of homes and places is of huge importance; we need to develop the right homes in the right places, with the right infrastructure. We cannot develop housing in isolation, and it must be developed within the context of a wider strategic framework (e.g. Local Plans, Economic Growth Strategy, York and North Yorkshire Economic Framework and Strategic Place Partnership).
In developing new homes, we recognise that the needs of households change over the course of their lives. As a result, we also need to ensure that the new homes that are developed are accessible and adaptable to meet these changing needs.
“Our Places” are also affected by growing shortages of affordable private rented housing. The attractive nature of North Yorkshire makes it a popular holiday destination. Since the pandemic, the demand for ‘staycations’ has risen, which has resulted in an increase in the levels of short-term holiday lets. Decreasing numbers of private rentals result in higher demand and rising rents, making private rented homes less affordable to would be renters on low incomes. It is also severely affecting the overall supply of residential housing in locations such as Whitby, Filey, coastal villages and much of our National Parks. As a result, we urgently need to increase the supply of affordable housing, especially within these localities.
We will meet these challenges by:
· Delivering at least 2,500 new homes per year across all tenures, including a minimum of 800 new affordable homes each year. We will also look at how we can work with our partners through the York and North Yorkshire Housing Partnership to deliver the affordable homes that we need.
· Developing an ambitious Council Housing (Housing Revenue Account) Business Plan, which will include growing the Council’s housing stock, with an ambition to deliver 500 new Council homes over the next five years.
· Develop an Investment Framework for new housing, ensuring that we are delivering the right homes in the right places.
· Working with the Mayoral Combined Authority and City of York Council to develop a Housing Investment Plan and supply pipeline, as well as deliver the Brownfield Housing Fund allocation.
· Pursuing opportunities to bolster housing supply (temporary and permanent) in the medium to long term by working with new partners such as the Ministry of Defence, and One Public Estate.
· Maximising all sources of funding to support affordable housing viability and boost delivery.
· Reviewing all our land assets to identify land that could be used for new housing (affordable and market homes).
· Developing our affordable housing delivery model, ensuring that we capture the best delivery models and develop them further to enhance affordable housing supply.
4.2 Addressing the rural housing crisis:
North Yorkshire is the largest geographical county in England covering 3,000 square miles of predominantly rural terrain, where 35% of our population live. Only 2% of our localities are urban but these areas accommodate 65% of our population. There are only two towns with a population more than 50,000. All other towns have a population of less than 25,000.
Sparsely and super-sparsely populated communities present a challenge in terms of inclusion and community sustainability, as well as service delivery. In sparsely populated rural areas people can experience physical and digital isolation with difficulty accessing services, jobs, and transport links. Housing is more expensive within these areas, both to rent and to buy, and affordable housing supply is limited. We know that rural poverty is often hidden and the financially vulnerable are dealing with higher cost of living increases, fuel poverty and insecure employment; a lack of digital connectivity and the persistence of ‘not spots’ exacerbates exclusion and disadvantage in our rural areas. More rural affordable homes with better connectivity are essential to ensuring inclusion and the sustainability of our rural communities.
A high proportion of our rural areas are within our two National Parks: the Yorkshire Dales and the North Yorks Moors. Both National Parks have experienced rural depopulation, especially in relation to working age families, in the last decade as local housing has become less affordable; this is affecting the sustainability of some settlements in the National Parks. The situation has been exacerbated by increasing numbers of holiday lets and second homes, reducing the supply of available and affordable housing for local households.
The two National Park Authorities have a crucial role to play in setting the strategic framework for developing new affordable housing in their localities and sustaining the local economy. As an example, the North Yorks Moors National Park National Park Authority has set targets in its Local Plan for increasing the levels of affordable housing within its area, whilst the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority is seeking to deliver 50 new homes a year.
We will meet these challenges by:
· Supporting the Rural Housing Enabler Partnership and Community Led Housing groups – to ensure a supply of housing is maintained, of the right quality, type, and tenure in rural areas.
· Working strategically with the National Parks to deliver new affordable housing to both meet the needs of local households and support the sustainability of local communities in the National Parks.
· Keeping sufficient focus on affordable housing supply in our rural communities.
· Working with key partners to ensure that rural affordable homes are digitally enabled.
· Working with the York and North Yorkshire Housing Partnership, the Mayoral Combined Authority, and Homes England to develop an enhanced rural affordable housing supply pipeline and ensure that there is sufficient investment to deliver the homes needed.
4.3 Supporting communities through neighbourhood renewal and regeneration
Whilst most of North Yorkshire is affluent with low levels of deprivation, there are some very high concentrations of deprivation. A significant part of Scarborough town is within the most 10% deprived neighbourhoods in the country and 85% of North Yorkshire’s most deprived residents reside in Scarborough, with further pockets of high deprivation in Selby and Harrogate. The levels of deprivation, particularly in central Scarborough, are in line with those of inner-city metropolitan locations.
Contributing to the levels of deprivation are:
· A low wage economy.
· High levels of households reliant on benefits.
· Low educational and skill levels.
· A poorer physical environment.
· Significantly high concentrations of private rented properties (over 50% in inner Scarborough).
There is a need to develop a holistic neighbourhood renewal approach to address these issues in partnership with other key service areas (Planning, Economic Development, Environmental services, Health) and external partners.
Our Economic Growth Strategy includes critical commitment to sustainable settlements, with significantly enhanced active travel options (particularly in urban centres, larger market towns and strategic employment sites), public transport which connects residents to accommodation, employment and education, creating 20-minute neighbourhoods and clusters of services in our rural areas.
North Yorkshire has some major strategic regeneration projects and priorities, including the redevelopment of Catterick Town Centre, where £19m Levelling Up Fund investment is regenerating the town centre. This investment has the potential to unlock significant future brownfield housing sites within Catterick. There are significant regeneration projects within Selby and new a new settlement being created at Maltkiln (between 3,000 and 4,000 new homes). These projects are catalysts, not just for the delivery of housing but generating economic growth and key infrastructure improvements that will benefit the whole of North Yorkshire.
Tackling empty homes will also support regeneration in local neighbourhoods and will provide more homes for local households, including more affordable homes. Whilst the proportion of long-term empty homes across North Yorkshire is roughly similar to the national average at just over 1%, this is still over 3,000 empty homes. There are slightly higher proportions of empty homes around Skipton and Malton.
The redevelopment of brownfield land and the conversion of existing properties is vital to supporting the regeneration of some of our local places. Some of our larger towns have been affected by the erosion of the retail offer in recent years, leading to empty shops; other localities are affected by neglected brownfield sites, which have not been developed. Making best use of these underutilised resources to help provide new homes for people is an important part of our housing growth plans.
We will meet these challenges by:
· Developing an approach to neighbourhood renewal for our most deprived neighbourhoods.
· Working with key partners to support communities through projects that will improve their local environment.
· Working in partnership with the Mayoral Combined Authority and Homes England to drive strategic regeneration projects across North Yorkshire.
· Developing a new Empty Homes Strategy to bring long term empty properties back into use.
· Making best use of existing properties and brownfield land to regenerate our towns.
5. Theme Three: Our Homes
Our Homes is about the challenges with our housing stock and how we can improve homes to make sure that they are decent and affordable. We face huge challenges in ensuring that existing homes are decent, energy efficient, and can contribute to meeting our wider Climate Change aspirations. We also need to ensure that all new build housing meets the highest standards, and actively contributes to meeting our Climate Change aspirations.
Our key priorities are:
· Decarbonising the whole housing stock, including our Council homes, making them more energy efficient and affordable to live in, reducing fuel poverty.
· Ensuring that new housing supply of all tenures contributes to our net zero ambitions.
· Addressing stock condition issues, improving poor quality housing in all tenures.
· Ensuring that our Council homes meet the decent homes standard and management of our stock is fully compliant with the Regulator of Social Housing Consumer Standards.
5.1 Decarbonising the whole housing stock
In North Yorkshire over 27% of the housing stock was built before 1919 (England: 21%). Older housing stock is often less well insulated and less energy efficient due to its construction, making it more difficult to improve. This in turn is a contributory factor to fuel poverty - over 15% of our households were recorded as being in fuel poverty in 2020. With rising energy costs and wider costs of living increases, the proportion of households experiencing fuel poverty is likely to rise.
In North Yorkshire, 18.7% of households privately rent their home, which is in line with the national average of around 19%. There are higher levels of privately rented properties in Richmondshire (21%) and Scarborough (22%), with very high concentrations (over 50%) in parts of Scarborough. Privately rented stock tends to be older, has a higher rate of non-decent homes, and a higher proportion of lower income households. There will also be higher rates of less energy efficient privately rented stock and, consequently, higher proportions of households in fuel poverty.
Work has already started to retrofit the Council’s housing stock, with work underway in the Harrogate locality to retrofit homes with an EPC E or F rating to bring them up to an EPC C. However, a comprehensive plan for all our Council homes needs to be developed to ensure all properties meet EPC C.
Meeting EPC C is the baseline target for our Council homes, but our aspiration is to develop a longer-term plan to attain EPC A or B. It is recognised that this will require significant resources and can only be done in the context of the wider Housing Revenue Account Business Plan. It is also recognised that it might not be possible for all Council homes to achieve EPC A for a variety of reasons. Meeting the Decent Homes Standard will assist in maximising the energy efficiency of Council homes.
We will meet these challenges by:
· Developing a social housing decarbonisation plan, with the aim of getting all Council homes to achieve EPC C and up to Decent Homes Standard (when the target date is announced by Government).
· Developing a longer-term plan with the aspiration of meeting EPC A / B for Council homes.
· Working with our Registered Provider partners and Homes England to implement investment plans to make homes warmer and more affordable to live in.
· Attracting Government funding to improve and decarbonise our private sector homes.
5.2 Ensure that new housing supply of all tenures contributes to our net zero ambitions
Ensuring that all new homes are built to high energy efficiency standards and contribute to our net zero ambitions is also crucial to achieving our Climate Change aspirations. Whilst progress has been made in recent years in uplifting the energy efficiency of new homes built, the recent introduction of Part L (conservation of fuel and power) of the Building Regulations, which came into force in 2022, and the proposed implementation of the Future Homes Standard in 2025, should contribute positively to these aspirations. Ensuring new homes are built to high energy efficiency standards will help ease energy costs both during the current cost of living crisis and in the longer term.
We have a real opportunity when developing new Council homes to act as an exemplar by being as energy efficient as possible; we aspire to build homes to EPC A where feasible and make use of both low carbon and modern methods of construction, where possible.
We will meet these challenges by:
· Ensuring that the new Local Plan maximises the quality of new homes in terms of design, energy efficiency, and accessible and adaptable standards.
· Ensuring that all new Council homes are built to Future Homes Standard and setting a minimum of EPC C, but with the aspiration of achieving EPC A where possible.
· Supporting our Registered Provider partners to meet net zero carbon ambitions in the delivery of new affordable homes.
5.3 Address stock condition issues, improving poor quality housing in all tenures
The English Housing Survey (2021-22) shows 14% of all homes were deemed non-decent. Within the private rented sector, the proportion is higher at 23%. Based on these figures, it is estimated that 38,500 of all homes across North Yorkshire are non-decent, of which almost 12,000 will be privately rented. The level of resources needed to tackle non-decent homes is challenging, especially in the private rented sector. We have successfully bid for Government funding to set up a Pathfinder project to increase resources in our Private Sector Housing Renewal teams, with special focus on locations where resources have been scarce previously.
We will undertake an assessment of the private rented sector across the whole of North Yorkshire, in the form of a ‘State of the Nation’ report. This will provide an overall assessment of the private rented stock and market, which will inform future strategic planning and help us to target resources appropriately.
We will also support willing landlords in improving their properties, especially in terms of energy efficiency. EPC rating in the private rented sector is lower than in other tenures, partly due to the nature of the stock, which is often older which makes energy efficiency improvements very costly to install. Maximising external funding opportunities and incentivizing landlords will be crucial to improving the energy efficiency of homes within the private rented sector.
We will meet these challenges by:
· Producing a private housing stock condition baseline and a retrofit action plan to inform future investment.
· Tackling stock condition issues, improving poor quality housing across all tenures.
· Working with the Mayoral Combined Authority to deliver the Carbon Abatement Pathway.
· Using our legal powers to enforce and raise standards in the private rented sector - taking a consistent and firm approach to raising housing standards, including the further development of selective licencing schemes.
· Taking forward the findings from the ‘State of the Nation’ report to develop targeted actions in locations with high concentrations of private rented stock, where there are identified issues.
· Maximising external funding opportunities to improve standards in the private rented sector and decarbonise homes across all tenures.
5.4 Ensuring the Council homes meet the decent homes standard and management of our stock is fully compliant with the Regulator of Social Housing Standards.
Managing 8,500 council homes, we are a major social housing landlord. We want to ensure that all our residents live in a decent home. Whilst most of our stock meets the Decent Homes Standard, we know that just over 200 of the homes within our stock are classed as Non-Decent (LAHS (Local Authority Housing Statistics): 2021/22).
As well as bringing the current non-decent homes up to the Decent Homes Standard we will invest in an improvement programme to ensure that our homes are the highest standard possible. We know that some of our housing stock may no longer be fit for purpose. We need to appraise the stock and ensure that it meets modern standards, including installing digital technology to suit modern needs.
The recent case of a child’s death, elsewhere in the country, caused by damp and mould in their social home, has led to increased regulation of safety in social housing. We will tackle any mould and damp issues in our properties effectively and ensure that we have a plan and resources in place to respond to all complaints of damp and mould within set timescales.
We aim to become an exemplar landlord, providing high quality tenancy services. We will meet the expectations of the Charter for Social Housing Residents and look to develop our key policies in line with this and the new Social Housing Regulations 2022/23.
We will meet these challenges by:
· Implementing the Housing Revenue Account Business Plan for all our Council housing stock over the next 30 years.
· Putting tenant safety first and fully meeting our regulatory responsibilities, including the eradication of mould and damp issues within set timescales.
· Developing a new Tenancy Strategy and establishing clear and high standards for the delivery of tenancy services.
· Appraising our Council housing stock and re-purposing where required.
6. Addressing our Equality Objectives
The North Yorkshire Council Plan has set a range of key equality objectives for the Council:
· To understand the needs of our communities and work with them to meet those needs
· To demonstrate commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion as an organisation, show leadership across the county and work in partnership to improve equality, diversity, and inclusion
· To provide responsive services and effective customer care to all
· To have a diverse and engaged workforce and fair and inclusive employment practices
We will meet these objectives through the following actions and approaches:
· We will ensure equality of service to all our tenants, residents, customers, and partners, including improving our equality monitoring arrangements.
· We will identify and address the needs of any specific groups including ethnic minorities, the LGBTQ community, Gypsy, and Traveller community.
· We will identify and address the needs of vulnerable households and groups such as older people, people with physical disabilities, people with learning difficulties and all other people with supported housing needs.
· We will ensure that our policies are fair and non-discriminatory and equally accessible to all residents.
· We shall meet the requirements of the Armed Forces Covenant and new due-regard duty, with respect to all our Housing Services and ensure that it is reflected within all our housing policies, with specific regards to the Allocations Policy, Tenancy Strategy, Disabled Facilities Grant Policy, and Homelessness Strategy.
7. Key performance indicators and strategy review
Setting out our high-level housing ambitions and priorities is just the start of the strategic planning process. A key tool in delivering our strategy is monitoring our performance and tracking trends which may impact on that performance. We will publicly monitor performance against the following Key Performance Indicators. These will be backed up by a wider dashboard of performance measures and market trends.
7.1 Theme One: Our People
|
Measure |
Frequency |
|
Number of new homes specifically developed for older people |
Annual |
|
Number of homeless assessments |
Quarterly |
|
Number of successful homeless preventions and reliefs |
Quarterly |
|
Number of households in temporary accommodation |
Quarterly |
|
Number of rough sleepers |
Quarterly |
|
Number of Disabled Facilities Grants completed |
Quarterly |
|
Number of refugee households resettled into permanent accommodation |
Annual |
7.2 Theme Two: Our Places
|
Measure |
Frequency |
|
Overall new housing completions |
Annual |
|
Number of Housing Revenue Account new builds (direct delivery) |
Annual |
|
Number of Housing Revenue Account acquisitions (acquisitions) |
Annual |
|
Affordable housing completions |
Annual |
|
Number of empty homes brought back into use |
Annual |
|
Community-Led Housing completions and engagements |
½ Yearly |
|
Rural Housing Enabler programme completions |
½ Yearly |
|
Units delivered through the Development Partnership |
½ Yearly |
7.3 Theme Three: Our Homes
|
Measure |
Frequency |
|
Number of Council owned homes improved through retrofit initiatives |
Annual |
|
Number of private homes improved through energy efficiency initiatives |
Annual |
|
Number of homes achieving EPC C or above |
Annual |
|
Number of private sector enforcement notices served |
Annual |
|
Number of new homes built to Future Homes Standards |
Annual |
|
Number of Council homes improved through Improvement Programme |
Annual |
7.4 Strategy Review
Progress on the delivery of this strategy will be monitored by the Assistant Director for Housing on a quarterly basis and reported to the Executive Member for Housing Growth annually. The Strategy will be reviewed after three years.