Housing reforms announced by the government have been slammed by Labour and the Liberal-Democrats in York as being insufficient to tackle the housing crisis.

However, the initiatives announced by housing secretary Michael Gove are being supported by Conservatives in York and North Yorkshire.

Last week, Mr Gove and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak insisted the Conservative government would meet earlier commitments to build a million homes nationally by the time of the next election, due next year. The prime minister said his government would not be "concreting over the countryside."

"Our plan is to build the right homes where there is the most need and where there is local support, in the heart of Britain's great cities,” he said.

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Michael Gove also said he wanted to make it easier to convert shops, takeaways and betting shops into homes, as well as ease rules on building extensions to commercial buildings and repurposing agricultural buildings.

In order to speed up big developments, the government will invest £24m to train up planning authorities. Half of the funding is newly-allocated, while the other half will come from the department's existing budget.

Central government gave special mention to Cambridge, with plans to create 40,000 homes by 2024, plus a raft of schemes in Leeds and Barrow-in-Furness, delivering thousands of homes and in time, a mass-transit system in Yorkshire’s largest city.

There was no specific mention of York in the proposals but council officials hope the city will benefit from the attention being paid to Leeds, given the close links between the two.

Planners have also noted continued government support for Local Plans as the main way to deliver local housing and policy, saying it supports its position to adopt a plan by the end of the year.

City of York and other councils have until mid-October to comment on Mr Gove’s ambitions to simplify plan making and amending permitted development rights, which it will send a response to.

Labour’s Executive Member for Housing, Cllr Michael Pavlovic welcomed plans for better resourcing of planning departments to boost development and quicker decisionmaking, but accused the Conservatives of making another ‘false dawn’ on housing announcements.

The city council also welcomes extra funding to help planning departments make quicker decisions.

The Hull Road councillor said the Conservatives were playing a political game by being unwilling to set long-term targets for housing delivery.

“Keeping its rural and marginal constituency MPs happy is much more important than providing the homes our children and grandchildren need.  And while Cambridge or London will see extra money for housing, what about those aspiring to own or rent a home elsewhere, including in York? The longer this Government remains in place the more that dream slips further and further away for so many”.

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York Central Labour MP Rachael Maskell said Conservative promises are built on sand and the Tory government offers no hope for those seeking get a fair deal in housing either through renting or buying a home.

She added: “York desperately needs genuinely affordable homes for people to rent and buy. With the Tories scrapping their housebuilding targets and failing to tackle the rapid rise in second-homes and holiday lets; it is time for a Labour Government who will get the houses built quickly, for those who need them.” 

In May, Sir Keir Starmer said Labour would give English councils more powers to build on green belt land, but added that new developments would not be permitted if they affected "the beauty of our countryside".

The Labour leader added he would take "tough decisions" and "back the builders, not the blockers".

Labour has also said it would bring back local housing targets and also make it easier to build on brownfield sites.