Work starts on first York housing co-op at Lowfield Green

The YorSpace development of 19 homes at Lowfield Green in Acomb aims to create permanently affordable houses that are owned as part of a co-operative.

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The organization offers residents a chance to buy homes at 75 per cent of the market value and keeps the land in community hands forever.

They say the low carbon homes will be built to Passivhaus standards, reducing CO2 emissions and energy bills and making them more affordable to run too.

Applications are open for 2 and 3-bed homes at Lowfield Green in York (Image: Supplied)

Sue, of Lowfield Green Housing Co-op, said: “This is such an exciting day for us to be here on site,
where our future homes will be.

"We’ve been waiting for this day for a long time, ten years for some members. I really want to live in this community, know who my neighbours are, share resources and do what we can to reduce our collective carbon footprint.”

Co-director of YorkSpace James Newton said: “We’re really pleased to be moving onto this stage of the project when, at times, it’s felt like it might never happen.

"A core group of committed people who believed in trying to make a difference in York have persisted through many challenges.

"We have had a lot of support to get to this point today, not least our 180 social investors who helped us secure the land.”

Back in 2019 when The Press previously reported on the plan the hope was for the homes to be up by Christmas 2020.

But the £4.5million project has struggled with numerous challenges since 2020 when the pandemic
 landed, and is now able to move forward on site.

A grant from the Brownfield Land Release Fund administered by the newly formed York & North
Yorkshire Combined Authority unlocked the project.

And YorSpace is working with Yorkshire-based building contractor Pure Haus to develop the homes.

Phase 1 of the development will see 14 homes across three terrace blocks with two, three and four-bed houses being built. They will have private gardens but all face into a central car-free street with communal gardens and shared facilities, designed to bring the community together.

Applications are now open for two-bed and three-bed homes.

Visit the Co-op’s website https://lowfieldgreencoop.uk/ for more information
and to request an application pack.

How the new Lowfield Green homes in York could look (Image: Supplied)