Ninety-three affordable flats are set to be built on a vacant York city centre site in a scheme worth around £33.8 million.
Detailed plans and a planning application are set to be drawn up for the Castle Mills site in Piccadilly after City of York Council’s executive agreed to move ahead with it.
Cllr Michael Pavlovic, the council’s Labour housing spokesperson, said the scheme would provide genuinely affordable homes including through shared ownership which was incredibly popular, particularly for key workers.
But opposition Liberal Democrat deputy leader Cllr Paula Widdowson said her party’s previous ‘shovel-ready’ scheme was stopped and housing providers’ reluctance to deliver the new one was a red flag.
The homes come as part of the wider Castle Gateway Masterplan which also includes the redevelopment of the area around Clifford’s Tower approved in December.
The latest proposals for 56 social rent flats and 37 sold through shared ownership schemes come after previous plans drawn up under the Liberal Democrat and Green administration were shelved in 2023.
Those plans, for 106 apartments some of which would be sold at market rates to fund public space improvements including a new footbridge, were deemed unviable.
The executive heard on Tuesday, March 3 that they could have progressed when plans were approved in 2020 but building regulations introduced shortly after rendered them undeliverable.
Labour pledged to to build only affordable homes on council-owned land in the 2023 local elections.
A viability review has since been done on the Castle Mills site after the only registered provider who expressed interest said they would not bring it forward.
The review found it would be viable for the council itself to take the scheme forward and Tuesday’s meeting heard outside grants were already in place for it.
A council report stated it would not be possible to build the homes to energy efficient Passivhaus standards but they would stick as much as possible to local guidelines.
The executive approved spending almost £2.4 million on Tuesday to take the scheme forward.
Challenging conditions at the site mean building costs are expected to be higher than normal and council plans include spending £10 million from its Housing Revenue Account, some of it borrowed.
A further £6.3 million from Right to Buy sales will also be used to fund the development.
Council housing lead Pauline Stuchfield told the executive the scheme was viable and came as part of wider efforts for much-needed affordable homes in York.
But Liberal Democrat Cllr Widdowson said political dogma had gotten in the way of building homes at Castle Mills.
The opposition deputy leader said: “The provision for more genuinely affordable homes is an ambition we all share, where we disagree is how to deliver them.
“It’s worth remembering that the previous administration had a shovel-ready scheme which was stopped.
“Attempts to sell the site to a registered provider have not been successful, the fact that none of them could make a 100 per cent affordable scheme work should have been a red flag.”
Labour Housing Executive Member Cllr Pavlovic said the Liberal Democrat claims were hogwash.
The executive member said: “We had a scheme that was mothballed by the previous administration on the grounds that it wasn’t viable.
“We’re delivering genuinely affordable homes including through shared ownership which is incredibly popular including for key workers.
“Castle Mills was a scheme that I was always assured would never be delivered and now it’s about to be delivered, there will be a more detailed business case but it is viable.”
