NORTH YORKSHIRE COUNCIL
20 May 2026
STATEMENT OF EXECUTIVE MEMBER FOR CULTURE, ARTS & HOUSING
CULTURE
Our Culture and Archives service along with Out of the Box Learning have been shortlisted for the Partnership of the Year Award at the International Museums & Heritage Awards, with winners announced on 13 May.
Coming up next in our exhibitions programme is a prestigious multi-site show in collaboration with Aesthetica contemporary art prize. This will see all of our galleries at Skipton, Harrogate and Scarborough host a selection of Aesthetica alumni in four distinctly themed but linked shows, creating a North Yorkshire wide exhibition – the first of its kind - celebrating two decades of pioneering contemporary art and featuring work by 50 international artists.
A number of North Yorkshire towns have been supported to submit expressions of interest to the first UK Town of Culture competition, with the longlist expected to be published by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) by the end of spring. The full list of North Yorkshire towns that have submitted: Scarborough, Selby, Harrogate, Richmond, Malton & Norton, Whitby, Settle, Knaresborough, Ripon and Pickering.
Scarborough 400 school workshops with sculptor Jethro Crabb are underway, and contributions from the children will be incorporated into the base of the piece to be installed at Scarborough Spa later this year.
LIBRARIES
Benchmarking data across comparators shows that North Yorkshire Libraries continue to be high performing and low cost. The numbers of books and digital items issued are in the top ten of the library authorities who reported to the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) last year and we have the largest number of volunteers nationally.
The National Year of Reading promotions continue, including the Adult Reading Challenge which attracted over 2,000 participants. April saw the countywide promotion Under 5s Week take place across all libraries in the county. Partners from Children’s Services and Public Health provided information at drop-ins and we held events aimed at families with young children, including musical sessions, story times and activities to promote books and reading.
Libraries are now providing support for the Household Waste registration scheme alongside bus pass and blue badge support. We are also supporting customers to sign up to the NHS app.
The first Family Hub for North Yorkshire is to be co-located in Scarborough Library. We are looking at investing in the first-floor area to make more multi-use space for family activities and a launch will be held later in the year.
A new partnership with Economic Development will see the introduction of a new range of books aimed at small businesses and start-ups – this is due to be launched at a business event in Harrogate in May.
Plans are underway for the relocation of Richmond Library to Mercury House. Teams will be working collaboratively with the volunteer management group Catterick, Richmond and Colburn Community Libraries (CRACCL) to ensure a successful move and effective communication with customers.
VENUES and ATTRACTIONS
Ticket sales for the 2026 Open Air Theatre season, which begins on 5 June, continue to exceed all previous records. To date, more than 160,000 tickets have been sold, with several weeks still remaining before the first performance. The venue has now passed the significant milestone of one million tickets sold since reopening in 2010.
The second Annual Scarborough Food & Drink Festival took place on 11–12 April. Despite mixed weather conditions the event attracted over 10,000 visitors and has already been rebooked for 10–11 April 2027.
The Filey Food Festival took place on Saturday 4 and Sunday 5 April, marking the first of four festivals scheduled for 2026. Saturday was particularly successful, with strong public attendance and exceptional feedback from traders. Unfortunately, the decision was taken on Saturday evening to cancel Sunday’s event due to the onset of Storm Dave, which had a significant overnight impact. Public and trader safety remained the priority.
Planning is progressing well for Scarborough Armed Forces Day, which will take place on 27 June 2026. Air displays from the popular RAF Typhoon and the iconic Spitfire are confirmed, alongside additional private displays currently being finalised. Activities will commence at 11am with the RAF Tutor aircraft, followed by the official opening at 12noon.
Scarborough Spa recently welcomed the President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE), who officially unveiled a new commemorative plaque at the Scarborough Spa Cliff Lift. The plaque marks the lift’s remarkable 150 years of operation and recognises it as the UK’s first funicular railway lift. The IMechE awards plaques nationally to celebrate pioneering engineering achievements and historically significant innovations.
Whitby Pavilion recently hosted the Eskdale Festival, now in its 123rd year, with attendance figures increasing on previous years. The venue also welcomed the UKA Dance Competitions, attracting over 650 participants and attendees.
The events programme has been going very well since the launch of the Maritime Heritage exhibition kicking off the year of commemoration in January – listings are regularly updated online at Scarborough 400 | Visit North Yorkshire. At the NYC museum & gallery sites we’ve had a fantastic response to the exhibition Of Land and Sea at Scarborough Art Gallery and are looking forward to our Dive In exhibition due to open in September; Scarborough Spa are putting the finishing touches to their big celebration weekend to coincide with Seafest at the Spa this July, incorporating arts activities, exhibitions, live music, entertainment and fireworks – more information to be released on this soon.
At the end of June the NYC Tourism team will be installing the Giant Deckchair Trail along Scarborough’s coastline with each one themed to its location, providing a fun and engaging link across key sites along the bays, encouraging people to ‘collect’ a visit to them all.
ACTIVE NORTH YORKSHIRE
As part of their Easter activity programme, Whitby, Scarborough and Filey libraries held ‘Signs of Spring’ nature walk, story and craft sessions in collaboration with Active North Yorkshire. Across the three libraries 46 children and adults enjoyed a gentle walk to and around a local green space, whilst completing a seasonal ‘Springo’ card or set of riddles featuring nature-based landmarks along the way. After some exploring and free play it was back to the library for a story and spring-themed crafts. It was really encouraging to see young people enjoying being active outside in local green spaces and engaging with the outdoors. We will be delivering a similar activity back in Scarborough as part of ‘Under 5’s Fortnight’.
The Healthy You team have been raising positive awareness over the last month with media filming taking place at both Selby and Skipton. The media release was circulated on 31 March, securing coverage in the York Press and Ryedale Gazette & Herald. The case study was also featured in Your North Yorkshire, with the article receiving 2,761 clicks and was seen by 79,379 people. Promotional flyers and posters have now been delivered across all the relevant areas.
Works are progressing well at the Scarborough Sports Village, with the initial phase of works to the pitch almost complete and the final stage of work, to resurface the pitch, expected to commence in May. Final completion is expected well ahead of the start of the new football season.
HOUSING
The Council continues to prepare for the Renters’ Rights Act 2025, and an updated enforcement and civil penalty policies was considered by Members in early May, alongside a programme of landlord forums to support awareness of key legislative changes and compliance requirements.
Our Home Improvement Agency continues to make progress in reducing the Disabled Facilities Grant backlog, supported by additional staffing. Since December 2025, more than 80 cases have been processed and are now awaiting start dates with contractors, with a substantial further pipeline of grants ready for approval.
The Lifeline service transformation has accelerated, with nearly 1,000 households now switched out of a total 2,400, supporting readiness for the national analogue switchover in January 2027 alongside wider service modernisation.
2025/26 Homelessness Statistics
Homelessness and housing advice approaches in 2025/26 have marginally increased compared to 2024/25, with 5559 seeking advice and assistance compared to last year’s total of 5392. So a 3% increase.
47% of those households coming to the Council for housing advice made a formal homelessness application.
53% approached and received housing advice, many were supported before reaching the point of homelessness. Such early intervention predominantly involves signposting to appropriate support to save the current accommodation and offer alternative housing options, enabling planned moves that benefit the customer, their housing provider, and local authority resources.
Of the 47% that applied to the Council as homelessness we managed to prevent or relieve their homelessness in around 42.9% before they received a statutorily homeless decision from the Council.
We started the year in April with 120 households in emergency accommodation, this has increased by 27% percentage over the last 12 months.
We have increased the amount of temporary accommodation we own as a Council through an additional 21 units during the year.
Towards the end of February, a new Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) grant was announced, the Ending Homelessness in Communities Fund (EHCF). This is a grant from central government designed to support local voluntary, community and faith sector organisations to develop better support to those experiencing homelessness and rough sleeping in their local areas. While these bids are primarily conceived and structured by these organisations, they require local authority endorsement in the application process.
North Yorkshire Council has therefore been involved in supporting the development of these bids, as well as ensuring that they align with the existing homelessness support offer across the county. This process has been invaluable in strengthening the Council’s relationships with the voluntary and community sector and deepening its understanding of the work and aims of these organisations. Throughout March, we have supported the submission of eight bids from across the county, and we look forward to hearing the outcome in due course.
Our landlord services are implementing the plan to address the repairs backlog generated by proactive stock condition surveys and compliance inspections. We are completing around 2500 repairs per month; however, we need to increase this to 3000 per month to eliminate the backlog by March 2027. We are writing to all tenants in May to progress capital improvement works identified through stock condition surveys completed before 31 March 2026. We aim to complete all 1200 capital improvements in this financial year. We are also starting to see the results of the void strategy implemented in December, with the number of voids returned to lettable standard and available to let just exceeding new voids coming into the team, with 46 properties being returned this month and expectation that we will reach target of 60 next month.
Housing Strategy and Enabling
The Council held its first round of its new Registered Provider Local Development forums in April. The Forums are an important element of the Council’s Enhanced Housing Enabling Service, agreed with the York and North Yorkshire Housing Partnership in December, designed to accelerate the delivery of affordable housing across the area. The aim of the Forums is to improve the way we work collaboratively with our housing association partners, through knowledge sharing, removing barriers and discussion.
Work has started on a new Supported Housing Strategy which will include an updated needs assessment and delivery plan, pulling together the work of several services to ensure we are delivering the right homes to meet the needs of residents with additional support needs. A public consultation on the Strategy will be held later in the year, ensuring user groups and their relatives have the opportunity to feed into the process. Under new Government regulations, there is a requirement to have the strategy adopted by the end of March 2027.
COUNCILLOR SIMON MYERS