Good Organisation’s work is rooted in a practical question: how do we make local economies work better for the people and places they are supposed to serve? Although Good Organisation main focus is on the visitor economy, this can not be understood without understanding the other economies at play.
In York, that question matters deeply.
We often talk about poverty, disadvantage and inequality as if they are simply problems of low income, individual hardship or poor life chances. But if we only look at poverty, we miss the other side of the picture.
We also need to ask where wealth sits.
Who owns the land, buildings and businesses? Who receives rent, interest, dividends and profit? Where does money flow? Who benefits from the local economy? And who has the power to shape decisions about the places where people live, work and belong?
That is why wealth mapping feels so important.
From poverty mapping to wealth mapping
York has a powerful historical connection to social research through Seebohm Rowntree’s mapping of poverty. That work was hugely influential, but it was also very much of its time. It often looked at poverty from the outside, and in ways that could feel judgemental or “done to” communities.
A contemporary mapping of wealth has to take a different approach.
It should not examine people or places from above. It should be shaped with communities, using lived experience, local knowledge and community-led research.
The question is not only: where is poverty?
It is also: where is wealth? Who owns York? Where does money flow? Who benefits from the local economy? And where are residents, communities and public institutions losing power over the assets that shape their lives?
Wealth is different from income
Income is what people earn.
Wealth is what people own.
Modern economies are increasingly structured around ownership. People who own assets often receive continuous cash flow. Rent flows to landlords. Interest flows to lenders. Dividends flow to shareholders. Profits flow to business owners and investors.
Commercial property, housing, land, finance and infrastructure all generate returns for those who own them.
So when we talk about the flow of wealth, we are really asking: who owns the things that other people need in order to live, work and participate in society?
This matters in practical local ways.
If homes are being used as short-term lets while housing pressure rises, we need to understand the ownership and incentive structures behind that. If communities talk about bringing empty buildings back into use, we need to know who owns those buildings, what they cost, and whether local people or community organisations could ever realistically access them.
Without that evidence, solutions can sound good but remain disconnected from reality.
Who owns York?
In 2023, Good Organisation began asking a simple but difficult question: who owns York?
Initial mapping explored ownership patterns across the city and identified 192 central buildings owned by offshore or overseas investors. That finding raises important questions about how much of York’s value is rooted locally, and how much is held at a distance from the people who live with the consequences.
Mapping Ownership York – Offshore or Overseas Investors
The reality of community ownership also becomes clearer when we look at the cost of land.
One example explored was the former Roman Museum site on Rougier Street.The known property transactions totalled around £17m, if the community were able to purchase that land it would be equivalent to roughly £81 for every resident (including the children and young people) of York.
That is not an argument against community ownership.
It is an argument for understanding the scale of the challenge.
Wealth mapping helps move the conversation from aspiration to practical strategy. It allows us to ask better questions:
Who owns York’s major land and property assets?
How much ownership is local, national or international?
How much money leaves communities through rent, debt, shareholder profit or external ownership?
Where are there opportunities to keep more wealth rooted locally?
And where are decisions reinforcing inequality?
Tourism as a window into wealth
Tourism is not the whole story. But in York, the visitor economy is one of the clearest places where these questions become visible.
The visitor economy uses the city’s streets, buildings, heritage, culture, transport, labour and public realm. It creates value from place. The key question is whether that value is shared fairly.
Who owns the buildings that benefit from visitor activity?
Who captures the revenue from accommodation, food, attractions and commercial property?
How much of that money stays in York?
How much flows outward to distant owners, platforms, investors or shareholders?
This does not mean tourism is the problem.
It means tourism reveals the system.
A successful visitor economy should not simply attract more people in. It should help local people stay, belong, work, participate and shape the place they call home.
Mapping as a democratic process
Wealth mapping is not just about collecting data. It is about making visible the systems that shape everyday life.
It is also about democracy.
Concentrated wealth can become concentrated power. Wealthy interests can influence policy, shape public opinion, fund lobbying and protect economic systems that continue to benefit asset owners.
If we care about democracy, we need to understand not only who has income, but who has ownership, influence and decision-making power.
Good Organisation believes the wealth mapping approach as both research and democratic process.
That means analysing land ownership, housing, commercial property, business ownership, investment flows and debt. But it also means involving residents, community organisations, local government, universities, housing associations, social enterprises, anchor institutions and people with lived experience of poverty.
The work should be done with communities, not to them.
Residents should help define the questions. Where do they see money leaving their communities? Who owns the assets that shape their lives? Where does power sit in York? And what practical changes would keep more wealth, ownership and decision-making rooted locally?
Taking the work forward
This work is not just a theoretical exercise. It is the beginning of a more practical conversation about how York understands wealth, ownership and local economic power.
In autumn 2026, Good Organisation will be working with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the University of York to further this work, exploring how wealth mapping can support stronger evidence, deeper community participation and more practical routes towards a fairer local economy.
The aim is not only to show where wealth sits, but to help communities, institutions and decision-makers understand where intervention may be possible, and how more value, ownership and power can remain rooted locally.
Changing the conversation
Ultimately, the purpose of wealth mapping is to change the conversation.
Instead of only asking how we reduce poverty, we also ask how wealth is created, extracted, concentrated and shared.
Instead of only measuring deprivation, we measure ownership and power.
Instead of treating communities as places of need, we recognise them as places of knowledge, assets, relationships and possibility.
And instead of accepting an economy where wealth continually flows upwards, we ask what it would take to keep more wealth circulating locally, democratically and fairly.
For York, this matters because the local economy is not abstract. It shapes who can afford to live here, who can stay here, who has a say here, and who benefits from the value the city creates.
That is the real potential of this work: to make the invisible visible, to give communities better evidence, and to open up a serious conversation about how we build a more equal local economy.