Coun Ann Reid (Give us the cash to create more housing, Letters, January 3) and Paul Cordock (Help for housing, Letters, January 7) accuse the "wicked" Government of taking £25 million from York to subsidise council housing in higher cost areas, like London.

It is true that cities with older council housing, like York, where most of the cost of the building the homes has already been paid off, receive less subsidy than areas with more recent homes and higher levels of borrowing to pay for it.

But what Coun Reid fails to mention is that her own party supports this - especially Liberal Democrats councillors in the areas that benefit from it. They say the current rules are fair and reasonable.

The subsidy rules are agreed after consultation between the Government and local government.

If Coun Reid thinks they are wrong, she should persuade her own party to press for change.

I wish her luck but I doubt she will be successful.

When I have raised this with local government leaders - from all parties - they have supported the current rules.

They point out that York has some of the best council housing and the lowest council housing rents in the country under the current system, despite our subsidy to other areas.

In York we should be arguing for new Government funding for additional affordable homes - not wasting time on a campaign of half-truths, which Coun Reid knows perfectly well she will not win with her own party or the cross-party local government associations.

Hugh Bayley MP, Holgate Road, York.

  • Geoff Scott, of Hogg The Builder, is wrong in claiming that "the term affordable homes' can be misleading because it does not necessarily mean what people think and often residents may not fully understand its implications", and "the danger is that most people will think it is starter homes for first-time buyers when the Government definition is social housing, or housing association" ("Affordable" label can be misleading, The Press, January 8).

The Green Paper "Homes for the future: more affordable, more sustainable" states that in the period up to 2011, nationally , there will be funding for "over 25,000 shared ownership and shared equity homes per year... to particularly help key workers and others who cannot afford to buy near where they work" through the Housing Corporation.

Additionally, a further 18,000 shared ownership homes will be provided through council backed "local housing companies".

It clearly states in the Green Paper that previous to its publication people could receive help through the "open market homebuy" scheme, where an equity loan of up to 25 per cent of the property price is available, and that since July 2007 a further 17.5 per cent has been available through the Government equity loan.

In York, the council has over recent years been ensuring, at the planning stage, that a percentage of homes classed as "affordable" are set aside for shared ownership/shared equity as well as those for rent.

The Green Paper will help provide further affordable homes for both rent and purchase.

It should be welcomed by all that care about ensuring York's current and future generations can afford to stay living in York.

Coun Tracey Simpson-Laing, Labour Spokesperson for city strategy, Salisbury Road, York.