THE news that the city council has designated sites for 9,000 new homes sits oddly with the almost daily announcement of the closure of business located in York, and of the concomitant job losses.

Who are these 9,000 homes for? Where is the evidence of the growth in employment that calls for them? York has lost most of its manufacturing industry.

Two-thirds of the national Gross Domestic Product consists of retail sales, yet York, as a noted regional shopping centre, has an increasing number of empty shops.

It would seem that we are to understand that the city council is still simply arranging to meet, without consultation or debate, housing targets set by an unelected, undemocratic regional body.

That body has consistently allocated housing targets without any regard to the reality of York unemployment figures. It is significant that of the designated housing sites, two are on well sited plots of industrial land left vacant by industries that provided the type of employment now lacking.

There appears to be a blind faith that the expansion of housing in York is desirable. It is inconceivable that a referendum of York citizens would ever endorse expansion.

What is the case for such a policy?

Maurice Vassie, Deighton, York.