MANY letters have bemoaned the lack of affordable housing in our area, from builders and ex-builders, architects and those desiring new homes.

No small architect-designed development will ever solve the problem, even if they fill a desirable niche and free up living accommodation elsewhere.

There is always a demand for more and better housing, even without the ability to pay. Affordable housing just isn’t: its true cost is often, if not always, subsidised by councils and the State.

Large numbers require fairly big sites to give economies of scale and factory-made, or at least factory-prepared, houses which have been with us for 100 years are the answer.

York could manufacture large quantities of good quality, visually acceptable factory prepared units (Portakabin will have designs already).

It would be up to imaginative architects to design site layouts and cost-effective builders to provide infrastructure, install and landscape.

The council should look at the land availability in a proper mix to include for the jobs which must come through industry, and consider land within the ring road together with some outside if growth in population is to continue.

Philip Crowder, York Road, Haxby, York.