York council is aiming to revive plans for a major regeneration scheme close to the city’s railway station.
The council is preparing to lobby central government to allow it to use tax increment financing to kick-start development at the 86-acre York Central site, which was subject to major proposals before the downturn.
The council is currently preparing a planning framework for the site, which was once earmarked for 1m sq ft of offices, more than 800,000 sq ft of retail and leisure and 3,000 homes.
It said that it will apply to central government for York Central to be one of two pilot TIF projects in order to finance necessary infrastructure works.
Around 80% of York Central is covered by railway sidings owned by Network Rail, with the remainder owned by the National Railway Museum, which is situated at the site. The landowners, with the council and defunct regional development agency Yorkshire Forward, had aimed to find a development partner for the scheme, but plans were shelved as a result of the recession.
York Central was seen as the main focus of a wider 185-acre regeneration area known as York Northwest, which also incorporated Associated British Foods’ British Sugar site.
James Alexander, leader of York council, said: “We are ambitious for the city of York and we recognise that the York Central site is key to growing our economy long-term.
“In the current climate, the private sector isn’t looking to take huge risks on large scale developments such as this and as a local authority, we don’t have the level of funding required to go it alone. That’s why we’re looking into alternative funding options such as TIF. We want to tap into the opportunity to kick-start the development now by borrowing against future business rates from the scheme, which have been retained locally.”
daniel.cunningham@estatesgazette.com
