CITY leaders claim a Government planning inspector’s ruling on a 200-home York development has proved housing must be built on green belt land because the city is running out of sites.

Water Lane Ltd can now redevelop the former grain stores site in Clifton without any affordable housing after national planning inspector John Gray said City of York Council needed more flexible policies.

York’s lack of a development plan was among his reasons for allowing the developers’ appeal against council requirements for 25 per cent of homes to be affordable.

The authority’s draft Local Plan has targeted 22,000 new homes by 2030 – many on greenfield sites – but opponents claim this will wreck York’s character.

In his judgement, Mr Gray said York had “at best, little more than a four-year supply of housing land”.

Council leader James Alexander said earmarking more land was “essential”, saying: "The Government has stated that, without a Local Plan, local democratic planning decisions will be ignored and decisions by London civil servants imposed.

“Through this appeal decision, the Government is also saying that without increasing land for homes, affordable homes on new developments look increasingly unlikely, which doesn’t help solve York’s homes crisis where families are being priced out of their own city. This is a wake-up call for political parties opposed to the Local Plan.”

Coun Joe Watt, Conservative Local Plan spokesman, said Labour’s housing targets were “a cynical exploitation” of the green belt and would lead to large bland estates with high prices.

“Labour’s proposals are an unrealistic attempt to provide affordable housing through the destruction of large swathes of green fields, in preference to developing derelict brownfield sites,” he said.

“Many other councils have recognised it is not viable to base a Local Plan on unrealistic affordable housing quotas.”

York Liberal Democrat leader Coun Keith Aspden said it was recognised York needed a Local Plan delivering affordable homes and meeting housing needs, but said: “The question is whether focusing development on the green belt is the right way forward and residents are overwhelmingly telling me they think it is not, too much of the planned development is inappropriate and Labour cannot deliver the jobs or infrastructure to support 22,000 extra houses.”