How Leeds has benefitted from WYCA funding

Leeds has recently excelled at repurposing former assets to meet the current needs of the city, writes Mark Munnelly of Dalbergia Group.

Being home to one of the largest city centre regeneration projects in Europe at South Bank brings with it exceptional challenges, further exacerbated by the number of different landowners seeking to bring forward projects concurrently.

Large upfront remediation and infrastructure costs have seen many brownfield sites on the South Bank and city centre fringes stall over recent years, resulting in changes of ownership and further delays to proposed development.

Dalbergia has been involved in a number of schemes which have benefited from West Yorkshire Combined Authority funding, in turn bridging the viability gap and allowing developers to unlock the potential of these sites without compromising on quality.

One of the most recent success stories is Spinners Yard in the Mabgate district of Leeds. The site has a history of low-scale development since the Mabgate district emerged during the industrial revolution, with its most recent form being a surface car park. The surrounding district has been a focus of regeneration since its decline from the 1900s onwards, but with limited success until recent times.

In 2021, Rise Homes acquired the site and subsequently secured £1.85m of additional funding from the Brownfield Housing Fund. This helped move the development forward and put the project at the forefront of sustainability and quality.

The 185 apartments were completed in May 2025 and benefit from sustainable initiatives including district heating through Leeds Pipes Heat Network, as well as photovoltaics, EV charging, and battery storage. The project also achieved BREEAM Excellent and a Fitwell three-star rating. The overall quality of the scheme has helped raise the benchmark and expectations for developments of this type in this location.

Without the WYCA intervention, the project would have faced financial challenges to make the model deliverable in a secondary location of the city. The burden of contributions for S106, CIL, S278, as well as district heating connection charges and site remediation costs could have stopped the project before it started.

Adding to this challenge was procurement occurring during a period of hyperinflation and in a post-Covid era, when the supply chain was still vulnerable and cautious.

As Nigel Rawlings, chairman of Rise Homes noted, without the WYCA funding, it is highly likely that scheme would have been delayed at least and may well not have happened at all without the support of WYCA. This is Rise Homes’ eighth build-to-rent scheme and Nigel and the team are very pleased with its BREEAM Excellent rating, amenity provision, and sustainable initiatives.

Dalbergia has provided project and cost management for a range of residential sites in Leeds. Credit: Dalbergia Group

Dalbergia is proud of our involvement in key schemes such as this in Leeds city centre and the wider West Yorkshire area, which are helping transform the city and region.

Over the last five years, we have been directly involved in the delivery of circa 4,000 units in West Yorkshire alone, a number of which have benefited from either WYCA involvement or the Local Authority’s regeneration vision.

Dalbergia is a leading national provider of project & cost management and fund monitoring services.

• Mark Munnelly is director at Dalbergia Group
• Dalbergia is sponsoring the West Yorkshire Development Update on 3 July in Leeds