Homes action call (From York Press)

Homes action call

11:00am Saturday 6th October 2012 in Letters By Reader's letter

THE time has long passed for the Labour group to attempt to justify its policy on affordable housing.

Their policies simply have not worked and will not work unless they take radical steps to extract themselves from the political mire in which they find themselves.

Terry’s, Germany Beck and Hungate remain in limbo, together with smaller sites at the Barbican and in rural areas, mainly because Labour’s affordable housing requirements are affecting these schemes’ viability.

The Conservative group proposed an alternative at July’s council meeting, which Coun Merrett gleefully refused to debate, passing it to the local plan meeting which took place earlier this month, without the subject actually being placed on the agenda.

The time for action is long overdue.

This administration, and its Lib Dem predecessors, have delivered few, if any, affordable housing units via developers’ contributions.

We are all aware of other factors which impact house building, but the message to Coun Merrett is to have the bottle to take a proactive decision in order to kick-start development in this city and to show leadership in place of the continual platitudes voiced by him and his cabinet colleagues.

Coun George Barton, Conservative, Wheldrake ward.