COUNCIL chiefs in York are set to bid for £1 million of Government cash to build about 18 homes, as they try to provide much-needed affordable housing in the city.

The homes, which would be located on land off Lilbourne Drive, in Clifton, would be the first council houses to be built in York since the early 1990s.

Housing bosses at City of York Council hope the development would cut the waiting list for council homes, with 2,827 households waiting last month and the authority receiving an average of 116 new applications every month – equivalent to nearly four a day.

Coun Jonathan Morley, the council’s executive member for adult social services and housing, told The Press: “In the last few years, we’ve been successful in using private developments to provide affordable housing.

“With that market drying up, it’s important that we take this opportunity to start building the houses to provide homes and jobs for our residents.”

A council spokeswoman said the authority believed the last council housing to be built in the city was Alex Lyon House, a sheltered housing development in Fifth Avenue, Tang Hall. It was completed in 1991. The Government is inviting local authorities to bid for a share of a £180 million pot by October 30, with successful bids due to be announced in December.

Coun Morley is set to approve the bid next week.

All homes funded by the grant must be completed by March 2012. The council will be allowed to keep all the rent from the homes, rather than pouring it into the controversial Housing Revenue Account system, which sees some money siphoned off to poorer areas of the country.

The principle of building new council houses received all-party support at a meeting last month between the leaders of the three main groups on the council, the Lib Dems, Labour and the Tories, as well as York MP Hugh Bayley and representatives from the Homes and Community Agency (HCA), which the authority would submit its bid to.

Paul Landais-Stamp, housing strategy manager at the council, wrote in a report to Coun Morley: “It (the scheme) will send a strong message to the agency that the council is committed at the highest level to finding innovative ways of reducing the gap between demand and supply of affordable homes.”