IT'S a pity that CD Wilson failed to refer to all the good work that has gone on in York during the past few years in terms of providing affordable homes for residents (January 30) - although of course we have to operate within the confines of national regulation and a free market which is pushing the price of housing beyond the means of many people in York.

However, City of York Council is endeavouring to provide 300 new affordable homes across the city every year in a variety of innovative schemes.

We have been working constructively with builders to secure a proportion of affordable homes in new, private developments. The Crescent and the Hawthorns are both examples of private developments where we have secured a quarter of the homes built for affordable housing.

Our strategy in York has even attracted the interest of key Scottish housing players keen to learn from our approach which brings together the council's planning and housing development teams, housing associations and private homes builders.

Yes, the current rules do mean that we are unable to secure affordable homes in private developments of less than 25 units. But because the Coppergate extension has 27 units, we will be looking for seven of those to be earmarked as affordable.

Meanwhile, we are sure that our latest housing needs survey will confirm the high need for affordable homes in York.

The present Government has already lowered the units threshold from 40 to 25 but we are already arguing for that to be lowered even further.

Councillor Viv Kind,

Executive member for housing,

City of York Council,

St Leonard's Place, York.

...CD Wilson (no relation) states that the 27 balconied flats which would be built on the roof of Coppergate II (if it gets the go ahead) would probably be worth £350,000 each.

Well if that were true, then in total, they would be sold at £9.5 million. The cost of Coppergate II is estimated to be £60 million.

I believe the selling price of these luxury rooftop apartments, with the best views in the city, would probably be around £ million to £1 million each. If that is so, then this development could bring in up to £27 million.

Take that from the £60 million cost of the Coppergate II development and I think we now understand why the developers and the council are so keen to build this development; it's the cheapest in town.

Stuart Wilson,

Castle Area Campaign,

Vesper Drive,

Acomb, York.

Updated: 10:07 Monday, February 04, 2002