Mayor signs landmark housing agreement to boost regeneration
A major agreement to get more houses built in Hull and East Yorkshire has been signed.
The Government body Homes England met with Luke Campbell, the Mayor of Hull and East Yorkshire, to sign the landmark contract and kickstart a new era of regeneration.
The deal is a big thumbs-up from central government for the progress being made by the Hull and East Yorkshire Combined Authority (HEYCA) and marks the start of a more long-term approach to housebuilding. It means the authority becomes the tenth place in England to be equipped with the ambitious new powers.
The Strategic Place Partnership brings HEYCA, Homes England, Hull City Council and East Riding of Yorkshire Council together around a new, shared approach to housing and regeneration. The organisations are following a successful pilot from the Greater Manchester Combined Authority which helped to deliver huge economic gains around Manchester during Andy Burnham’s time as mayor.
The new agreement means that rather than looking at possible sites for housebuilding in isolation, the partnership will instead help to build a coordinated pipeline of priority developments. It will also bring Homes England’s national expertise to East Yorkshire earlier and allow partners to work together on the issues that can prevent good schemes from getting off the ground.
In addition, the agreement will help planners at HEYCA to better deliver a joined-up approach to new infrastructure and investment, as well as making sure new housing is planned alongside transport, jobs and the wider needs of communities.
After signing the landmark deal, Mayor Campbell said the longer-term ambition is not simply to build more houses, but to make better use of brownfield and underused land. He thinks this approach will create modern mixed-use neighbourhoods where homes sit alongside jobs, businesses, green space, transport and the everyday things people need.
Mr Campbell said: “There is huge, untapped potential across Hull and East Yorkshire. We have brownfield and underused land that can become new homes, new neighbourhoods and places where people genuinely want to live.”
“I want us to be ambitious about what comes next. That means more city centre living, modern mixed-use neighbourhoods, bringing homes, businesses and green spaces together, and breathing new life into parts of our region that have been overlooked.
“We should be every bit as ambitious for Hull and East Yorkshire as anywhere else in the country. This partnership gives us another way to turn that ambition into something people can see and be proud of.”
The agreement also supports HEYCA’s wider Local Growth Plan, which links housing and regeneration with the things needed to grow the economy, including jobs, transport, infrastructure and investment.
It means housing can increasingly be looked at as part of the wider future of a place rather than simply one site at a time, helping to give Government, developers and investors a clearer picture of where Hull and East Yorkshire wants to grow and what is needed to make that happen.