Plans for 85 homes in York – but how many will be affordable?

City of York Council is set to build 85 homes on land near Fulford as part of its housing development programme.

The development on Ordnance Lane and Hospital Fields Road will be at least 40 per cent affordable, though it could be “significantly more” if grant funding is secured.

York’s housing programme aims to build more than 600 homes across the city which will “set a new high standard for housing in the 21st century”.

As part of the programme, families are already moving in at Lowfield Green, Acomb, while the council has put a proposal at Duncombe Barracks out to tender.

The Ordnance Lane and Hospital Fields Road site is also set to include two communal spaces, two retail spaces and six other spaces for flexible use, subject to planning permission being granted.

The existing site is currently a mix of largely unused and dilapidated former temporary homeless accommodation buildings.

The York Central site is also part of the council’s housing plan, though this is still at an early stage.

‘Put people over profit’

But at a meeting of the council’s executive committee on Thursday, senior councillors were urged by Labour to “put people over profit” by finding ways to build a greater proportion of affordable homes on their land.

Councillor Michael Pavlovic said: “Selling off 60 per cent of the homes being developed at full market value will not put a dent in the desperate need for genuine affordable housing this city.”

The council has said it will try to secure higher rates of affordable homes on a site-by-site basis.

Councillor Denise Craghill, executive member for housing, said: “The council is never going to deliver the scale of affordable housing the icty needs on its own, as he well knows – that will come also through the local plan sites.

“But the work the council is doing is making far more than a dent in this need at the moment and it is leading the way in terms of standards and innovation.”