COUNCIL bosses are hoping to 'set the tone' for the massive York Central redevelopment scheme by aiming to ensure 40 per cent of homes built on land it owns there are 'affordable'.

It is also insisting that homes built on its land should be 'high quality' and energy efficient.

The council only owns 5 per cent of the land on the huge, 45-hectare (111-acre) site.

But the authority's interim 'director of place' Tracey Carter said it may be possible for the council to buy some at least of the land owned by Homes England or Network Rail, who between them own 95 per cent of the site - so potentially increasing the amount of land on which the authority could reach its 40 per cent affordable homes target.

She said the council hoped to develop its housing land as part of the first phase of development so as to 'set the tone' for the scheme.

As reported in The Press last week, one of the last hurdles to construction work beginning on the huge site behind York railway station was cleared when the council’s planning committee voted in favour of approving the first phase of infrastructure works.

The plans are still potentially subject to judicial review for the next 12 weeks. But council leader Keith Aspden said after last week's meeting that initial site clearance had started and contractors were due to start on site in early 2021.

In a report on the council's property portfolio that will go to executive members on November 26, Ms Carter says that the council's housing delivery and regeneration teams 'have been working with the York Central Programme Director to consider how (the council) might develop a mixed housing and community scheme on the site, potentially utilising both (council) land and adjacent land owned by Homes England'.

Describing it as an ' exciting opportunity', her report adds: "It is proposed that this opportunity is worked up into a formal proposition with a procurement strategy to take to Homes England/Network Rail to make this part of the first phase of residential development."

That will require the council's Executive to approve a £150,000 allocation to 'masterplan' the housing proposal.

The council describes York Central as 'one of the most prestigious brownfield regeneration sites in the UK'. In August, the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government agreed a grant of £77.1million to fund the roads and infrastructure that will make developing the site possible.

Outline plans approved for the 111-acre site envisage 2,500 new homes - 500 of them, or 20 per cent, affordable - and 6,600 new jobs being created.

The number of affordable homes would increase if the council was able to ensure 40 per cent of the homes on its land were affordable - though how much by would depend on whether the authority was able to buy any more land.

Speaking to The Press, the authority's executive member for finance, performance and major projects, Nigel Ayre, said: "The more we can do to maximise the amount of affordable housing, the better."

York's opposition Labour group says it would support moves to increase the council's ownership of land at York Central.

Labour group leader Danny Myers said: “If the council is serious about extending its ownership of York Central from the current 5 per cent then in principle, Labour would support this. We have seen the council as being peripheral and having next to no influence on a site of such major strategic importance to York. Anything that changed that, including increasing the chances of more genuinely York-affordable housing, Labour would get behind."

Tracey Carter's report to the Executive meeting on November 26 aims to summarise the council's entire property portfolio, and make recommendations on how it can be better managed.

The portfolio includes high street shops, offices, schools and other buildings, and land. In all the council owns about 1,300 ‘assets’ worth £346million. Between them they generate an annual income for the council of about £6million.