INSURANCE firm Hiscox could get the green light to start building its new £19 million offices in the centre of York next week.

City of York Council planners have recommended the global insurer’s proposals for a flagship base, including a rooftop terrace, on the Hungate development site, ahead of next Thursday’s meeting of the authority’s planning committee.

Two applications will be discussed, with a full application for Hiscox’s purpose-built offices being submitted alongside a request for outline planning permission for a neighbouring development, either including offices with ground-floor retail or leisure use, or a five-storey hotel with between 80 and 100 bedrooms.

The scheme could create 500 jobs in York and also includes landscaped public areas and pedestrian and cycle paths.

The complex would be built on the section of the Hungate site which previously housed the Haymarket car park, York’s ambulance station and the Peasholme Centre homeless hostel.

No objections have been raised over Hiscox’s headquarters, with two objections lodged over the design and size of the adjacent building, which would be built behind the Black Swan pub and for which detailed proposals would be submitted later.

If approved, construction will start next year and is expected to be finished in 2015.