THE potential housing crisis facing York is starkly outlined in the figures we report tonight. Seven thousand new homes will be needed in the next decade.

This in a city where homelessness has already increased by three-quarters in two years.

Many reasons lie behind these statistics. York's population is growing. The council's housing stock is depleting. And the property boom has left increasing numbers of people off the housing ladder altogether.

A considered strategy, allied to imagination, will be needed to cope with these trends. City of York Council's action plan is an encouraging start.

Updated: 10:19 Friday, August 10, 2001