THE city council has to grasp the nettle of transforming housing.

As I have previously argued, we need to learn from other cities and take charge of providing affordable, energy-efficient social housing in York.

It is wrong that young people who grew up in York cannot live in York because of a lack of homes.

This is as a direct result of the failure to adopt a strategic vision for the city’s future.

We need to create a consortium between a national housing association, a bank and the city council to develop the Teardrop site, creating thousands of homes and jobs.

We need to insist that all new homes are built to passive house standards, with annual heating bills of £50 a year instead of £1,000 a year.

We need to engage constructively with organisations such as the campaigners seeking to making community use of Oliver House.

It is unacceptable for the city council to put the interests of developers ahead of residents and the city.

Other cities, such as Heidelberg in Germany, are able to be visionary and creative over this in order to transform housing and ensure that their city thrive into the future.

The political parties are failing the city.

Christian Vassie, Prospective Independent Candidate for Holgate, Blake Court, Wheldrake, York.