Architect Matthew Laverack to complain to the Local Government Ombudsman over “affordable homes” (From York Press)

Architect Matthew Laverack to complain to the Local Government Ombudsman over “affordable homes”

8:45am Tuesday 25th May 2010 in

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AN ARCHITECT is pressing ahead with a complaint to the Local Government Ombudsman, following the revelation that beds in York’s homeless hostels are officially considered “affordable homes.”

Matthew Laverack says he has decided to complain after City of York Council failed to apologise over a letter sent by an officer to The Press earlier this year, which he claims gave “false and misleading” information about affordable housing.

The Press reported last month how Mr Laverack had discovered that, out of 151 affordable homes completed in York in 2008/09, 35 were actually beds at the Arclight in Clarence Street, which replaced the old Arclight in Leeman Road.

Of 146 affordable homes which the authority predicted would be completed in 2009/10, 22 were beds at the new hostel in Fishergate, which replaced the old one in Peasholme.

The council said the figures were in line with the Homes And Communities Agency’s classification of homeless hostel provision as affordable housing.

But Mr Laverack, who uncovered the statistics through a Freedom Of Information request, said then that “by no stretch of the imagination” could a bunk in a homeless hostel be regarded as an affordable home.

He complained to council chief executive Kersten England about a letter to The Press in February by housing development manager Andy Kerr, which had used the 151 and 146 figures in response to an article which revealed there had been a dramatic slump in the provision of affordable housing in York.

But now he has had a letter from director of communities and neighbourhoods, Sally Burns, in which she says she does not believe the council acted wrongly.