THE Get York Building initiative championed by Coun James Alexander (The Press, February 1) is just another empty slogan, which I predict will not do what it says on the tin.

I’ve read the report, which proposes to reduce affordable housing requirements by a paltry five per cent, but this is nowhere near enough to act as a stimulus to unblock stalled sites.

The consultation process leading to these proposals has been a complete waste of time, and officers have again not listened to the experts.

An affordable target of ten per cent with a threshold of ten dwellings was requested, and even this did not guarantee to work, and may have needed further reduction.

Council officers are obsessed with keeping affordable housing targets at unworkable levels, while York’s housing crisis gets worse. Their poor judgement and flawed policies continue to be a cause of the problem, not a solution. Stop York Building is more appropriate.

Paul S Cordock, Durlston Drive, Strensall, York.

 

• GET York Building – don’t make me laugh.

There is more chance of James Alexander becoming Chairman of the Conservative Party than there is of the revised affordable housing requirements producing any significant increase in new dwellings.

The proposed policy changes are wholly inadequate and it is clear to those of us who are actually expected to build all these homes that the so-called consultation exercises we attended were, once again, a sham and a waste of time.

Matthew Laverack, Lord Mayor’s Walk York.