RACHAEL MASKELL rightly highlights the “failure to build new homes for local people” (The Press, September 13).

This is not only about building more houses; it is about building houses that local people can actually afford.

No doubt many households in the South Bank area thought the Terry’s development would enable them to upgrade from smaller terraced properties to new, more spacious homes without needing to relocate.

This would have freed-up those smaller terraced properties for the next generation of local people to gain a foothold on the property ladder. A housing win-win.

However, the house prices on the Terry’s development (typically around £350,000 for a two-bedroom house, £425,000 to £475,000 for a three-bed, £600,000-plus for a four-bed) mean these new properties are beyond the budgets of most local households.

As a result, South Bank families continue to burst at the seams in smaller terraced properties, while expensive new houses on the Terry’s site remain unsold and empty: homes to nobody. A housing lose-lose.

The Terry’s development features “iconic” designs and has won awards.

As a result it also features premium prices.

Good design is important, but right now York needs houses that people can afford to buy, not unaffordable design icons.

David O’Brien, Cameron Grove, York