Update on plans to safeguard heritage assets on Lower Kirkgate

A row of derelict privately-owned buildings on Lower Kirkgate has been cordoned off for safety reasons – and the road closed to traffic – since one of the properties suffered a partial collapse in April last year.

Leeds City Council is intending to carry out a 16-week programme of stabilisation work on the buildings after their current owners – two linked companies called City Fusion and Kirkgate Land Residential – failed to take the necessary steps to make them safe. It will then seek, as is its legal right, to recover the cost of this work from the companies.

The council is separately seeking to acquire the properties with a view to them being fully restored and brought back into meaningful long-term use, complementing the regeneration activity that has been successfully delivered elsewhere on Lower Kirkgate.

Now a new report – due to be considered at a meeting of the council’s executive board next Wednesday, July 16 – has set out how these parallel courses of action are proceeding.

The report confirms that the council is in continuing negotiations with City Fusion and Kirkgate Land Residential over its proposed purchase of the properties.

It also confirms that a market value offer – based on an independent valuation undertaken in line with the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors’ Red Book Global Standards framework – for the buildings has been made by the council but to date this has not been accepted.

As a result, next week’s executive board meeting will be asked to approve the development by the council of a case for the potential compulsory purchase of the buildings.

A compulsory purchase would only be pursued as a tool of last resort if a negotiated sale cannot be agreed and no other options remain available that would enable the full restoration of the properties.

Any formal decision – or resolution – on the use of compulsory purchase powers would be reserved until a future and as-yet unspecified meeting of executive board.

The report also confirms that the council hopes to be in a position to complete its 16-week programme of stabilisation work on the buildings by the end of 2025.

With detailed designs for this work close to being finalised, it is anticipated that a start on site should be possible during August.

An update on plans for the reopening of the road after the work has been completed will be provided in due course.

Councillor Jonathan Pryor, Leeds City Council’s deputy leader and executive member for economy, transport and sustainable development, said:

“The situation on Lower Kirkgate is a complex one and clearly remains a major source of frustration and concern for local residents and businesses.

“We are determined to find a solution to the issues affecting this historic street, where important heritage assets have been allowed to fall into a serious state of disrepair.

“It should be stressed that, at the current moment in time, the at-risk buildings are not owned by the council.

“We are, however, acutely aware of the need to protect the 18^th and 19^th-century fabric of Lower Kirkgate.

“It is against this backdrop that we are continuing to pursue the separate but parallel courses of action outlined in the report to next week’s executive board meeting.”

The report also sets out how the council attempted – for more than a decade – to facilitate improvements to the buildings.

Key to these improvements would have been the award of grant support from a council-backed regeneration scheme called the Lower Kirkgate Townscape Heritage Initiative (THI).

Despite its best efforts, however, the council was unable to formally agree terms for this award of THI funding before the scheme came to an end last year.

THI grants helped drive the restoration of a number of other buildings on Lower Kirkgate, including the Grade II-listed First White Cloth Hall, as well as a fundamental redesign of the local street-scene.

The report that will be considered at next week’s executive board meeting can be found in full at item number 16 here.

Notes to editors:

City Fusion and Kirkgate Land Residential were served with an urgent works notice by Leeds City Council in February this year.

This legal document gave the companies 28 days to start a programme of stabilisation work on a number of at-risk buildings owned by them on Lower Kirkgate.

Their failure to meet the deadline for compliance means the council – using statutory powers granted to local authorities by the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 – has the right to carry out the work itself. The drawing up of detailed designs for this work began in March.

Planning regulations required the council to secure permission from the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport before the urgent works notice could be issued.

Approval was granted by the Secretary of State in December following an application made by the council in August 2024.

The buildings currently pose no threat to public safety, with protective hoardings being placed in front of them following last April’s partial collapse. The ‘buffer zone’ created by the hoardings means that Lower Kirkgate is currently closed to traffic.

ENDS