OVER the next 20 years, there is more chance of me becoming the Pope than there is of Labour’s proposals for 9,000 new homes to be built in York.

It is all very well to produce lists of sites, but it is another matter to get buildings erected when policies and regulations place unrealistic burdens on private house-builders.

Quite apart from planning obligations and affordable housing policies, it is still intended all new homes will have to reach Level Six (carbon zero) of the Code for Sustainable Homes by 2016. The costs and difficulties of achieving this are out of all proportion to the benefits received and new houses will cost more to build than they can be sold for.

Even before the recession, the freehold owners at York Central and British Sugar could not find any developer to touch those sites.

Moreover, no house-builder has been found for the Terry’s site, Nestlé South or the old gas works, and existing planning permissions are lapsing all the time. Even the much-vaunted Germany Beck has been stalled for years. The only way that substantial new housing is to be built is by rolling back the regulatory burden.

Matthew Laverack, architect, Lord Mayor’s Walk, York.