York councillor on housing, projects and visitor levy

Cllr Katie Lomas spoke to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) and answered Press readers’ questions before the council sets its budget for 2027/8 in the new year.

How is the council ensuring money raised through a second home premium on council tax is helping people struggling to afford homes in York?

Cllr Lomas said the 100 per cent council tax premium on second homes introduced in April 2025 was helping to fund efforts to help people with expensive living costs in York.

She added it came alongside the council’s aim for all homes on its sites to be affordable.

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The executive member said: “We charge the premium on second homes because we think it’s the right thing to do.

“If people choose to have a second home they should contribute more to help those struggling to afford to live here.

“Receipts from the premium and council tax generally goes into our budgets which is spent on areas including housing and supporting the homeless, along with all the other services the council delivers.”

What’s happening with the York Outer Ring Road, Haxby Station projects and the £34 million Station Gateway overspend?

Cllr Lomas said progress was set to be made on the York Outer Ring Road scheme despite the almost £100 million funding gap it faced as of last year.

She added she understood frustration about the more than £34 million overspend on the regeneration of the front of York Station which has sparked political rows and calls for an explanation.

Cllr Lomas said: “When we took over the York Outer Ring Road project we immediately recognised that the money we had wasn’t enough.

“Funding has been delivered for that project but we’ve had to break it down into phased work.

“We’re about to deliver the first phase of improvements that will pave the way for further work as we secure funding to do that.

“That further work is important for residents, visitors and commuters, so we’re hopeful we can look at other sources of funding such as the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority.

The overspend on the Station Gateway scheme now stands at more than £34m (Image: City of York Council)

“Haxby Station isn’t being led by the council, it’s led by Network Rail, but we’re working with them on the infrastructure while they progress with the design work.

“Station Gateway continues to be one of our more problematic projects, the contract the council inherited made us liable for extra costs.

“It wasn’t designed in a way that we would have but the contract was signed when we took over so we have to got on and deliver it in the best way we could.

“Once the project got underway we found additional things like an underground water tank that it cost money to deal with.

“We asked for an independent audit and the findings of that were helpful, we’ve brought in project management staff and we’ve worked to complete it as fast as we can.

“We’ve also been living through economically turbulent times and inflation in construction has consistently been running much higher than has been generally, so many of these projects are costing more especially when you’re working in a complicated place that has surprises waiting for us.”

What do you think about proposals for a visitor levy?

Cllr Lomas was asked about a visitor levy, or tourist tax as a study commissioned by York and North Yorkshire mayor David Skaith found a £1-a-night charge could raise £26m.

Cllr Lomas said: “The visitor levy will be hugely important for York and North Yorkshire, although we don’t know the details of what it will look like yet.

“We have an enormous visitor economy thanks to our beautiful, interesting city which people want to come and see but it costs money to provide services for them, keep our streets clean and do projects that provide transport for them.

“A levy on tourists could be used to fund these things, improve the places that people visit and relieve a bit of the financial pressure on councils for providing services visitors use.

“York must be one of the few places that has its own in-house stone mason working for the council to look after the city walls.

“The burden is falling on people who live to pay, it’s right that people who visit contribute to help keep York so nice.”