ONLY 100 new homes were built in York last year, according to a Centre for Cities report. If true, and given the desperate shortage of affordable housing, that’s not good enough.

The figure is disputed by the city council, however. And with work under way at Terry’s and Derwenthorpe among other sites, there are signs housebuilding is picking up.

This raises a new worry. There was criticism of the council’s draft local plan for allowing too much development on green belt.

Under pressure to get enough new housing built, there is a danger York planners will allow overdevelopment of greenfield land.

That mustn’t happen. There are many brownfield sites in York – some, such as British Sugar and York Central, very big ones. These must be a priority – even if they are more difficult and expensive to develop.