York city centre is set to become the first location in the UK to welcome doughnut firm Project D’s launch into the high street retail market. Derby-based Project D will be opening its first retail store in Parliament Street, York, in September. The bakery selected York as its first ‘bricks and mortar’ location due to the popularity of its online sales and attendance at its previous pop-up events in and around the city. Project D’s marketing director and co-founder Max Poynton also said he held a soft spot for York, having spent many holidays in the area as a child and, more recently, as an adult. “York is such a great fit for our brand,” said Max. “It’s such a cool place to visit, and we’ve always had massive success at the many pop-up events we’ve done there. I love going back there as often as I can, having fallen in love with the city as a young child. “Whenever we’ve visited more recently, people have often asked us when we’re going to open up a permanent retail store there. Well, it’s coming very soon – and we are so excited. We are confident that our doughnuts are second-to-none. Their premium quality is the perfect match for a premium city like York.” The new 500 sq ft Project D shop is currently being fitted-out at the former Carphone Warehouse store, at 10 Parliament Street, between HSBC and Vision Express. The company’s bright pink branding, which mirrors its best-selling ‘Homer’ doughnut – inspired by cartoon character Homer Simpson – will make the store difficult to miss. The firm is expecting to open at least three stores this year, one of which will be at Meadowhall Shopping Centre, in Sheffield. Further new stores are set to follow next year. The retail expansion is part of a long-term plan to build a large-scale presence in UK high streets and out-of-town retail centres, continuing a vision that was delayed by the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. “This is the future of Project D,” added Max. “And we are massively fired-up by the prospect.” Max co-founded Project D in 2018 alongside his former school friends Matt Bond and Jacob Watts. The firm operates from a purpose-built, 11,000 sq ft bakery that currently makes about two million doughnuts per year but has capacity to manufacture up to 17 million. Project D has already partnered with major brands including Brewdog, British Airways, Love Island, Coca-Cola, Greene King and Amazon.

Proposals have been set out for spending £150 million over the next four years to create hundreds more affordable homes in Leicester. The city council has outlined an approach involving more council house building, acquiring vacant properties, and working with partners involved in bringing forward Extra Care and supported living schemes as a way to create much-needed housing. It also looks at potential development sites for inclusion in future local plans. The work is part of the council’s commitment to deliver 1,500 new council, social and extra care homes by 2027. The report detailing the work goes to the council’s housing scrutiny committee at the end of this month. Work is already underway on a number of schemes to create desperately-needed housing stock, to meet the city’s growing need for decent-quality homes. The first phase of house-building work has already seen sites redeveloped in the Crown Hills, Humberstone, Netherhall, Abbey and Beaumont Leys areas. More than 270 further newbuild homes are already in the pipeline by 2025/6 at sites including the former Saffron Lane velodrome, Stocking Farm, Lanesborough Road, the former school site at the Newry in Southfields and the site of the former Forest Lodge Education Centre in New Parks. Hundreds of existing homes could also be acquired to provide quality affordable homes and social housing between now and 2026/7, using a combination of funding methods, including Right to Buy Receipts, Home England funding and bids for cash from the Government’s Levelling Up programme. One such scheme is the Zip Building, in Rydal Street, West End, which will transform the former student accommodation block into 58 one-bedroomed flats. It is hoped that the former bus depot at Abbey Park Road and a site at Loughborough Road will both be redeveloped as housing, while additional Extra Care and supported living homes are due to be developed at sites including former Exchange at Eyres Monsell. Some of the proposed developments outlined in the report are dependent on the adoption of the latest Local Plan, which sets out the council’s vision and objectives for growth of the city over the coming years. If the proposals were to all be delivered they would enable the creation of around 1,500 much-needed affordable homes. Leicester assistant city mayor for housing and neighbourhoods, Cllr Elly Cutkelvin, said: “We’ve set out an ambitious programme of creating new housing in order to try to meet the city’s urgent housing needs. “Building new council houses to replace those lost to the Right to Buy scheme over the last few decades is an essential part of that, as well as bringing other existing buildings into use as accommodation. “New homes have already been completed at some sites and work is underway at others. The opportunities presented in the latest local plan would enable us to meet our commitment to creating additional homes. “This report sets out what we think can be achieved over the next four years, how it will be funded and also how we can work with other partners who are bringing forward their own supported living and Extra Care homes, to ensure we are creating a range of suitable, good-quality affordable housing which we desperately need.”