CITY of York Council should work more closely with social housing providers to tackle the city’s affordable housing crisis, a cross-party scrutiny investigation has found. 

It was one of a number of measures suggested by councillors Stephen Fenton and Michael Pavlovic, who looked into how the council could boost delivery of affordable homes on new developments in the city.

They interviewed private developers, housing associations and other councils during their investigation, with the pair adding that many of their preconceptions about the issue had been upended during the process.

But Cllr Pavlovic, who previously ran a supported housing charity, said: “One preconception we haven’t moved away from, which was echoed by private developers, housing associations and other councils, was that we are not delivering enough genuinely affordable housing – neither nationally, nor in York.”

Neither the council, housing associations or private developers would be able to solve the problem alone, the Labour councillor added.

York council has committed to building 600 homes – at least 40 per cent of which will be affordable – across council-owned sites as part of its housing delivery programme, but it also loses around 60 of its properties per year through right-to-buy legislation.

Registered providers of social housing are less impacted by similar right-to-acquire rules, Cllr Pavolic said.

He added: “Our recommendation suggests that the future housing delivery programme could be better delivered using a partnership model with housing associations that will provide markedly more affordable housing on council-owned sites than we currently do.”

Cities such as Stockport provided a good model for this, Cllr Pavlovic said.

Other recommendations to come from the investigation included ensuring 75 per cent of homes delivered through developer contributions as part of planning process should be for social rent once the government’s First Homes initiative comes to York, and for the council to itself manage open space on new developments.

Liberal Democrat Cllr Fenton, chair of the housing scrutiny committee, said: “We feel this is important in reducing the risk of residents of new developments being saddled with high service fees.”

In response to the report, the council’s director of housing, Tracey Carter, said the council’s sale of a plot of land in Sturdee Grove to the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust, where eight affordable homes will be built, was one example of their work with social housing providers.

The council’s executive member for housing, Denise Craghill, welcomed the report.

She added: “I do think it is important to say that we are developing active working relationships with housing associations considering, where appropriate, sale of council land to help maximise delivery of affordable housing.” 

In a parliamentary debate on affordable housing last month, York Central MP Rachael Maskell said the city’ housing market was “out of control and heating at a pace, year after year.”

She said that prices grew 14 per cent in the past year, “faster than anywhere else in the north.”