MORE affordable housing could be provided on City of York Council development sites in future – following the recommendations of a review of housebuilding across the city.

The review looked at aspects that affect affordable housing – including service charges that residents pay to cover repair work and the upkeep of shared spaces, but which can be a significant monthly bill for people living in affordable properties.

It also recommends that York council works with housing associations on future developments to deliver more affordable homes.

And that in future versions of council housing schemes, officers look to increase the number of affordable homes built.

The council launched its housing delivery programme in 2019 and it includes plans to build 600 homes on council-owned sites across the city.

The homes are set to be built to high standards of energy efficiency – called passivhaus – and 40 per cent of homes on each site are set to be affordable with the rest sold at market value.

Councillors from across the political divide teamed up to launch a review into how affordable homes are provided on both private and council developments in York.

Councillors Stephen Fenton and Michael Pavlovic spoke to developers, housing associations, other councils and national housebuilders about their views on affordable housing in the city.

They found that all organisations were keen to see the Local Plan adopted as soon as possible to increase the amount of land available for developments.

Some housing providers were also eager to take on entire sites to build only affordable housing.

The study found that housing associations would like to work with councils to buy land and build affordable homes on it – such as a recent scheme in which the local authority sold land in Heworth to the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust to develop as eight affordable homes.

The report by Cllr Fenton and Cllr Pavlovic says: “We recommend that for future iterations of the council Housing Delivery Programme the council actively considers sale to – or joint working with – registered providers for potential housing development sites."

“We also recommend that for future iterations of the Housing Delivery Programme officers consider how the programme can be structured and financed in a way that would deliver an increased proportion of affordable homes.”

They also looked at the likelihood of expensive service charge fees being attached to affordable homes on private developments and concluded: “We have concerns that the trend for space being managed by companies who charge all residents (regardless of tenure) a set fee can undermine the affordability of some homes for some residents.

“We recommend that officers review what steps could be taken to make it more likely that open space can be managed by the council, particularly on council Housing Delivery Programme sites.”

The review will be discussed at a council meeting on Wednesday, when members of the committee will decide whether the recommendations should be sent to senior councillors for approval.