York needs to loosen its Green Belt and also allow more housing as well as office space in its city centre.

The call comes after a visit from the Centre for Cities earlier this month.

It also follows the think tank reporting York was doing much better than other cities nationally.

The Centre for Cities says competition for land use is hotting up but due to its heritage, the city cannot accommodate everything and must prioritise and control.

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Government policy makes matters worse, it argued, allowing offices to be converted to housing but homes should be additional to commercial space, not instead of it.

Centre for Cities chief executive Andrew Carter says York Central- the massive mixed use scheme- is vital for the city to accommodate some of the demand it is experiencing.

He said: “The scheme is big – in terms of size its roughly equivalent to 30 per cent of the size of the existing city centre.”

Mr Carter says Centre for Cities has written about York Central before when looking at the lessons of the Kings Cross development.

The think tank then believed York Central featured too much housing, a view it still holds following its recent visit.

Mr Carter continued: “There is no doubt that York needs more housing – it is the least affordable city in the North of England. But it is also very short of city centre office space, and how this site is used will be critical for how York’s economy performs in the future.”

Assuming Permitted Development Rights don’t take up offices, York Central will increase the share of floorspace given over to offices in the city centre from 13 to 16%. This is an improvement, but way behind Bristol’s figure of 33 per cent.

Mr Carter also says to build enough new homes outside the city centre, land must be released from the Green Belt.

“Most brownfield sites, including those in the green belt, have either already been developed or are scheduled for development in the medium term.

“Ultimately, the green belt restricts the ability of York, and other green-belt surrounded cities, to expand outwards and protected views of the Minster constrain its ability to build upwards.

“These regulations need to be carefully but deliberately relaxed if York is to provide the homes it needs at prices people can afford without squeezing out the commercial space needed to house the businesses that provide the jobs and wages that those living and working in York need.”

Mr Carter concluded this would need ‘bravery’ and cross-party co-operation. Demand to work, live and study in York was growing and policymakers faced a challenge to ensure this worked for the city and not against it.