All on board for York Central | Q&A with Tom Gilman
Place Yorkshire met with the managing director of McLaren, to discuss how one of the largest city centre regeneration schemes in the country is progressing and what it will mean for York’s economy and housing.
York Central is a once-in-a-generation regeneration project currently underway in the historic city, which will introduce a new entrance to the west of the train station and next to that, Museum Square will comprise the improved National Railway Museum, a new hotel, and public realm. This will all link to a central business district, which will house grade A offices and an innovation hub, running parallel to the rail station. Moving on from the CBD, housing will be created – approximately 2,500 homes, to be more specific.
To put it into context, the York Central district will be 110 acres, roughly around two-thirds of the size of the historic walled city, and is a game-changing masterplan that has been in the works for almost 40 years.
How does viability work in a project on this scale?
I think the scale makes it better. When Homes England and network rail set about selecting the development partner, it was telling in the way that it was run: it was 70% around the social and the environmental scoring as opposed to 30% on the financial scoring. It was really focused upon the positive outcomes this regeneration project could have, rather than the land receipts.
The structure of the deal is that we have a viability hurdle, we have a minimum value, which is minimal enough that we can make this viable. And the having somebody like Homes England putting in £135m of infrastructure, you never get the private sector doing that. It wouldn’t have been viable. So we’re in a space where we are able to draw the land down to a minimum value and deliver the scheme, which is more focused on the positive outcomes rather than the financial return to Homes England. That’s a lovely position to be in, and will enable us to accelerate development and deliver faster and deliver more, hence we’re building 1,000 homes in Phase 1, which is a huge piece.
It’s an amazing example of public private partnership and I think this is the way it should be done. Public sector putting in the infrastructure, the private sector coming in to do the delivery piece, and if you structure it properly and you concentrate on the positive outcomes rather than just the return on the infrastructure money, that is going to lead you to the right way to deliver regeneration. This could be a showcase for the future about how it gets done.
Then there’s all of the positive support from the key stakeholders. Everybody’s bought into it, everybody wants to see it happen.
This project, it’s certainly one of the biggest in the country but what I’m looking to do is deliver the biggest impact, which I think this has the ability to do, through jobs and affordable housing. The S106 requires us to deliver 20% affordable, but everybody knows that York is an expensive place to live, and providing more affordable housing has always been an aspiration of the of the council and Homes England.
One of the first meetings we had with, Peter Denton, who was the CEO at the time, he asked, ‘Can you deliver more? And can you deliver more affordable housing?’ – well, absolutely, if we all work together, 100%, we can do that. We’re targeting 40% affordable, which is an example of how public and private can work together to deliver more with homes England and the combined authority in the council, all leaning in and supporting that.
- Credit: McLaren
Can you give us a brief outline of timelines, how many phases there will be, and when you expect each phase to commence?
Nice and simple to start off with is Phase 1A and Phase 1B. Phase 1A is the Government Property Agency [which is taking 195,000 sq ft of office space in the new CBD area]. That already has reserved matters approval, and we’re looking to start on site in January of 2026 with that project. About 2,300 employees will be based there, so it will be a significant government hub.
Phase 1B is the delivery of public realm space [on Museum Square], which will be on the same timeline as the GPA, and that’s relatively straightforward because it also already has reserved matters approval, so we can get on and do that. The road for that area is already going in, and the National Rail Museum has secured its funding for the new Central Hall.
We’re putting in a reserved matters application in October for Phase 1C, which will be for the Western Station entrance, a 200-room hotel, public realm, an innovation hub, and around 1,000 units of housing – BTR, private sale, and affordable, plus public parking. Subject to approval, of course, we’re looking to start on site in the summer of 2026 and deliver through until 2028 – different bits will come forward at different times, but that’s the rough idea for Phase 1ABC.
Then Phases 2-5 we will look to roll out – as each phase completes, we’ll start on the next phase.
As a developer, having the opportunity to work on a big regeneration project is the ultimate aim, but then getting to do it in your home city is the icing on the cake, and on a scheme that can have proper impact in so many different ways: social, economic, the growth of the city. ‘Sustainable’ is an often over-used word but we are really pushing sustainability boundaries here, and we want to do that and lead the way in terms of doing it sustainably at scale. It’s much more difficult in small developments, but something of the scale here, you can really do it.
Having a partner like Network Rail and the way the deal is structured, it benefits our ability to be able to push the boundaries on social impact, sustainability, and affordable housing, and all of the good stuff that people want to see in a regeneration project like this. And the Local Authority is fully aligned with that. That’s the wonderful thing – you’ve got everybody fully aligned with the vision.
We’ve spent a really productive 12 months consulting all the stakeholders and understanding what they want out of the project and finessing what we wanted out of the project as well. But it was all aligned from the get go, so more affordable housing, better social impact, better outcomes for jobs and the economy, and creating places where people can live and work and play.
- The improved National Railway Museum
- Public realm and the hotel
- The GPA building. Credit: Mclaren
You said it being on such a large scale makes it easier to go down the sustainability route and focus on it. How does that work?
Well, I mean, there’s a couple of things that we are pursuing. When we talked about the innovation hub in Phase 1, it will hopefully be that hot-bed where businesses can come, start, grow, and expand and it will be really significant in terms of the growth of the economy. We’re looking to do that building as the most sustainable commercial building in the UK.
If you look at a traditional office building it uses about 475kg of carbon per sq m, while we are targeting around 350kg – so that’s a massive reduction, and it’s timber-framed. So, it’s an innovation hub in more ways than one: in the way it’s delivered and the materiality of that building, but also, it’s a hub where people can keep coming to innovate.
We’re doing a lot of work with the Combined Authority and the council around the growth plan, and we’ve targeted three industries where York has already got a really good base and that opportunity for accelerated growth. We’re looking at the bio and agriculture industries, and obviously, you’ve got rail tech. Rail is very significant in York, but that rail tech side of it, thinking about the future of how you’re going to deliver railways and the signalling, that’s something really important for great industry.
Creative media tech is the third limb to those three industries. York is a UNESCO Creative City of Media Arts, the only one in the UK. There’s some great industries here, but they haven’t got anywhere to go. That innovation hub is the place where people can innovate, grow, and expand.
Then you create a CBD, which is based upon those pillars. It’s not just a CBD where everybody comes in, it’s got more focus to it, looking at the core industries that can really accelerate growth in York. It’s more thought out. That scale of opportunity and the structure of the deal with Homes England enables us to push the barriers around sustainability.
York is a medieval city. Was there any pushback to all the modernity here, or any particular challenges to working in such a historic city?
Homes England and Network Rail did the planning application, and it took some time to go through the planning process. And there was some finessing around what that outline application looked like, but I think, broadly, everybody agrees that, hey, York is desperate for housing, desperate for affordable housing, but the CBD, that commercial space, is equally integral to the scheme.
There’s always going to be a little few bumps in the road through a planning process, but I think the broad consensus was, ‘this is what we need’. Everybody sees the opportunity for the city and everybody’s leaning in and supporting it.
Now we’re finessing that with our own reserved matters application. I would say 95% of all the engagement has been really positive.
And what impact is the project expected to have on the city’s economy?
The impact it can have on the York economy is huge. I think the base case with the analysis is that it will add 20% to the York economy, but the opportunity is probably beyond that, and the CBD is an integral part of it. It’s not just more tourist and leisure jobs, which York does very well, but it’s looking at skilled employment – higher qualified jobs.
There are great universities here, and people who are highly educated in the city, but trying to find them jobs for the future is challenging – they’ll go to Manchester or somewhere. Everybody says it, but to live, work, and play in one location, in a great city, right next to the railway station – that’s dream stuff.
