YORK desperately needs homes that people can afford.

As The Press reported earlier this month, house prices are spiralling beyond the reach of ordinary young workers. The price of an average home in York is more than eight times the average income of those working here.

As a result, a whole generation of young adults - teachers, nurses and plumbers among them, many born and bred in this city - are being denied the opportunity to buy their own home.

If we want this city to remain a thriving, working town in which young families can afford to live and bring up their children, something needs to be done.

It is easy to understand the city council's insistence that in future, 50 per cent of all homes built on large new developments in York should be affordable.

Today, however, we reveal that this well-intentioned policy could backfire. Developers have warned they won't build in York if half of new homes must be affordable - because they won't make any money.

If they mean what they say, York's house-building programme could stall. Major city-centre developments such as York Central and the Terry's and British Sugar sites could be halted or delayed.

The result of that, developers argue, is that there could be fewer affordable homes in York, not more.

We sympathise completely with the council's aims. But if there really is a danger of this policy killing off York's housing boom, council bosses need to sit down with developers again to see if a solution can be thrashed out that is acceptable to all.

Otherwise, a whole generation of young York workers could be priced out of the city.