Labour’s housing promises collapse as Ordnance Lane plan unravels

York’s Lib Dem councillors have slammed Labour council bosses for breaking more election promises after it was revealed that plans for new affordable and energy-efficient homes have been scrapped.

Liberal Democrats have warned since the 2023 local election that Labour’s policy of insisting on 100% affordable housing on council-owned land was an election gimmick that risked bringing York’s housing programme to a halt, with fewer affordable homes built as a result.

Three years on, those warnings have been proven right.

Not a single one of Labour’s flagship 100% affordable sites has been progressed to delivery. And now, at Ordnance Lane (the site they repeatedly held up as the model for the future) their approach has fallen apart.

Labour promised residents a flagship development of 100% affordable, Passivhaus homes. They championed it as “the design of the future” and a gold standard for sustainable housing.

But when the site was taken to market, no developer was willing to take it on.

Now, instead of delivering on those promises, Labour are quietly watering them down, weakening environmental standards and stepping back from the very commitments they used to sell the scheme.

This is exactly what Liberal Democrats warned would happen.

Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group, Cllr Nigel Ayre, said:

“Labour made big promises on housing, but they simply haven’t delivered. Their insistence on a rigid 100% affordable model has stalled sites and left York falling behind on building the housing York needs.

“At Ordnance Lane, they even promised residents a flagship Passivhaus scheme that would set the standard for the future. Instead, we now see those commitments being watered down because their approach didn’t work.

“In 2023, the council had schemes in place at Ordnance Lane and Castle Mills that would have delivered 191 new homes, including 71 affordable homes. Instead, after three years of this administration, we now have an admission that not a single affordable home will be delivered in their term of office.

“That’s 191 homes that could have been built and lived in by now, including 71 families who could have had a genuinely affordable place to live. Hundreds of people in York are being priced out of buying or renting a home.

“Residents will rightly feel that this is yet another broken promise from a Labour Party that promised more affordable homes, yet are delivering less.

“It’s time for a reset. We need an approach that actually gets affordable homes delivered, with high environmental standards.”