GOVERNMENT policy will force thousands of York families into “housing poverty”, a city MP has claimed after he met a housing minister.

Minister Grant Shapps told Hugh Bayley that support for new developments such as British Sugar should come from City of York Council raising local council rents rather than from central Government funds.

But council leader Andrew Waller said the local authority had powers to obtain funding through other means and it was building houses in the city for the first time in 20 years.

Mr Bayley, the York Central MP, said the housing minister’s proposal would mean thousands of households facing “housing poverty” or spending more than a third of their income on accommodation costs, excluding fuel bills.

“I don’t like the Government’s housing policies, but they are in charge,” he said. “Dozens of people come to my surgery asking for help with housing, so I will work with the council to try to make Government policy deliver homes for rent in York.” He is now planning to meet city councillors and housing officers and hopes to lead a delegation from the city to the minister to discuss York’s difficulties.

The MP said the average York income of £19,000 and the £210,000 price of an average three-bedroom house in the city, meant many people would never get the chance to get on the housing ladder as they could not afford a big enough mortgage.

“The minister understands York has a huge Southern England style problem of housing affordability,” said Mr Bayley. People with low paid jobs such as shopworkers and waiters needed a place to live at a cost they could afford. The current York waiting list for affordable homes is 3,000 households.

Coun Waller said the council’s priority was to build as many affordable homes as possible, which is why it had changed its affordable housing targets for new developments, despite Labour objections.