Case study: Delivering social value through regeneration in North Yorkshire

How has COVID-19 changed priorities for Selby District Council and for its residents?

The pandemic has changed people’s views about where they want to live and how they want to live. People living in flats in the middle of the city, for example, have found the lack of outdoor space less appealing, and many have sought a better quality of life outside of the city centres. For those in jobs who can work from home at least some of the time, this makes complete sense.

We have seen a significant number of people move from larger urban centres like York and Doncaster into more rural locations such as Selby. That puts pressure not only on our local housing market but also on local services and infrastructure. In turn, this pressure is felt by the Council, which needs to respond to both changing population density and the requirement for new services and amenities locally.

How can the Council help to address these changing priorities?

While the Council cannot control house prices, we can allow for, and actively encourage, more houses and commercial developments to be built. This is all part of the Council’s regeneration priorities for our local area.

Yet we need to look at this holistically. Housing is just one part of the equation. To drive genuine social value, regeneration projects need to provide job opportunities for local workers, improve amenities for residents, and to enhance overall wellbeing and quality of life for communities.

One local example is Sherburn in Elmet, a village within the Selby district. The building of a new Aldi supermarket has been a catalyst for significant regeneration of the village over the past five years. It has created a significant number of local jobs. It has also meant that residents can stay within the village to do their shopping, whereas previously they would have had to travel out of the village to a Tesco superstore.

What lessons can be learned from the experience in Sherburn in Elmet?

The Aldi supermarket wouldn’t have been built without the Council also permitting a significant amount of residential development. When I first became a councillor, there were 2,400 houses in Sherburn in Elmet. There are now 4,100 and another 300 are being built.

Another critical lesson is that local regeneration requires careful thought to create spaces where people want to meet and socialise with each other. That could be green spaces, outdoor seating areas, or more diverse local high streets with cafes and other amenities. We want to encourage people to spend time in their local communities and to take pride in them. There is never an empty shop in Sherburn - except when it's been refurbished or is changing tenants - because people want to shop there.

What are the challenges in delivering these kinds of regeneration projects?

Any regeneration project requires a significant amount of partnership working between the Council and other local service providers. Transport and infrastructure are good examples: because we are a rural area, the bus services are not frequent and have become less so because of COVID.

On the one hand, we want to encourage the use of public transport because of its environmental benefits. Public transport also provides a lifeline for elderly or more vulnerable residents who cannot get about by car. On the other hand, people require reliable, cost-effective options otherwise they will be forced to find other transport options, or worse still, will be stuck at home.

This joined-up thinking about social value and community regeneration is something that we are pushing for to a much greater degree. We need to see the council working with local businesses, entrepreneurs, landowners as well as regional and national government to accelerate our social value impact.

Picking up on the theme of environmental sustainability, how does this feature in the Council’s thinking about social value more broadly?

It is something that Selby District Council has committed significant time and resource to because we want to see real progress on environmental outcomes locally, and to play our part in the national effort, including the net zero by 2050 target set by the national government.

In Selby, we have set up a low-carbon working group that is tasked with driving forward this agenda across all parts of the Council’s business. We have started by looking at very practical changes such as moving to a low carbon office space.

It is very easy for us to sit back and say we will deal with the climate problem by 2050, but many of the people in positions of power making decisions today will be dead by then! As with other aspects of social value and ESG, tackling the climate crisis requires a big vision and a shared purpose, but we need to start with priorities and actions that deliver meaningful impact today to achieve those long-term aspirations. 

Author Bio

Councillor Mike Jordan, Selby District Council

Following a successful career as an industrial chemist, Mike Jordan has been a councillor at Selby District Council in North Yorkshire since 2007. During this time, he has also sat as a councillor on North Yorkshire County Council. Throughout his time as a councillor Mike has championed local devolution, community regeneration and has been part of Selby District Council’s Policy and Audit and Governance Committees.