GOVERNMENT housing figures revealed say York needs significantly more houses that local councillors are planning for in the next 15 years.

York's Local Plan draft - published for consultation on Monday - includes space for 867 new homes every year until 2032 - but fresh figures from the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) say the city actually needs 1,070 a year.

The difference is prompting fears that York's long-delayed plan could face more set backs if council bosses push ahead with their estimates, only to be send back to the drawing board by government inspectors sticking to the higher figure.

The DCLG figures were released earlier this month, and Labour's Cllr Fiona Derbyshire said they will present a real headache for the ruling Conservative and Liberal Democrat councillors in York.

She added: "On the one hand you have a council administration seeking to suppress rising demand for homes and on the other a Government telling York it needs over 200 more homes built each year than the council leader is willing to accept.

"The evidence is stacking up to indicate this Plan will be submitted in the knowledge that it is unsound, which shows a real absence of leadership on one of York’s key challenges”.

Labour councillors have already criticised the ruling Tory and Lib Dem coalition for opting for the lower housing figure of 867 when expert planning consultants employed by the council had backed a 10 per cent "uplift" to make up for previous undersupply. At the time the council leader David Carr said they had listened to advice, but decided the higher figures would hit the "special character" of the city.

He has now hit back at suggestions the DCLG publication could hit the council's plan.

He said: "The plan has been refined over a number of drafts to reflect a realistic balance between York’s need for additional houses and residents’ strongly held views, expressed over a series of consultations, that the historic character of the city and its adjacent greenbelt must be preserved."

The DCLG figures are a consultation to which City of York Council is responding, he added, and the final calculation of housing numbers will depend on the methodology used by the DCLG on the basis of the responses they receive on the consultation. Cllr Carr denied claims they were suppressing demand, and pointed to the three "garden villages" included in the current draft - new developments which will deliver much-needed housing more quickly than brownfield developments.

“We make no apologies for our focus on ensuring that York’s local plan provides for future growth plans whilst respecting its past, something Labour has never respected in its headlong rush to indiscriminate development. Labour forgets that true leadership requires compromise and listening to York’s many voices, which is exactly how this administration has proceeded with our Local Plan process.”

DCLG's figures come from a standardised way of assessing housing need, which government officials published two weeks ago and are now asking for feedback on.

Their calculations increase York's need to from 867 to 1,070 but for neighbouring Harrogate DCLG puts housing need at 395 homes a year, instead of the local figure of 669.

In Ryedale the government assessment of 187 homes a year is marginally lower than the local figure of 195-213; and in Selby the DCLG assess need at 371 homes a year against the local figure of 450.