IN response to the letter about the Joseph Rowntree Foundation's plans for Derwenthorpe, 'Sell off this land' (November 24), I refer the contributor to the "affordable" housing in Haxby.

Here the pitiful handful of properties the council insisted on being "affordable" are being subsidised by ramping up the prices on the rest of the houses.

That is the only excuse they could conceivably have for charging £225,000 upwards for cramped three-bedroom townhouses in an area where £175,000 can easily buy you a semi with three double bedrooms and a 50ft back garden.

What York really needs is a few thousand four-bedroom houses so that families with children who are on average incomes have a realistic chance of moving into something more than a sardine can. This would free up smaller houses, flats, maisonettes and bedsits for the people who actually need them, and with that supply expanding, the prices at the bottom end of the market would come down.

"Undemocratic" as the JRF is, at least it is attempting to offer affordable housing to people for a fair price. There is no way a commercial developer would be anywhere near as altruistic, and chickens will grow lips before any council in Britain gets its finger out in the planning department.

Give JRF a crack at it.

Tim Staddon,

North Moor Estate,

Huntington, York.

Updated: 10:26 Wednesday, December 08, 2004