YORK council leader James Alexander has played down the impact of a New Homes Bonus for the city announced by Housing Minister Mark Prisk.

Mr Prisk said that over the next year, councils across Yorkshire & the Humber, including City of York Council, were set to share a cash payout of £53.25 million after delivering 10,232 new homes including 4,491 affordable properties and 2,496 empty homes brought back into use.

But Coun Alexander said York council would not be receiving new monies, as the bonus was taken from its overall grant and then awarded to it over a period of six years, based on the number of new homes that were built in the city.

“The majority of this money has been built into our medium term financial strategy and is already committed so this does not reflect an increase in funding, given that we’ll still have to find £41 million savings over the period of 2011-14 period due to cuts from government.”