Moves by planners to ban any more property building in many villages have also failed to find favour – and flooding fears look likely to prevent tinkering with the way house-building is distributed through the area.

Selby Council is replacing the old Local Plan with a Local Development Framework, which will include policies to control the release of housing land through a Core Strategy.

As current house building rates are approximately double the annual requirement, the authority was debating whether to introduce interim measures to restrict the release of housing land in certain locations before the adoption of the longer-term Core Strategy, which could take up to two more years.

Selby Council wanted to take more of a lead in housing matters because it was concerned that its present policies were falling short of what was needed to deliver on the sustainable development agenda.

But the Government Office has argued there is no need at this stage to meddle with existing policies and the council would be better concentrating on developing its Core Strategy on housing rather than relying on an interim approach which might be unsound.

Senior planning officer Rachel Wigginton said: "Officers' views are some of the criticisms from Government Office are not fully justified and that certain statements are incorrect. Nevertheless, we have always been aware that the council's intervention in this manner would be controversial."

In the light of the Government's view, despite significant support from the Yorkshire Assembly, it has been concluded that it will be difficult to justify interim policies on the basis of amending the scale and distribution of housing, she added.

There had also been a mixed response from more than 120 people and organisations during the consultation process which showed significant support from individuals and parish councils but almost unanimous opposition by developers and others with a direct stake in the property market.

One bone of contention was upping the amount of affordable housing in developments from the existing 40 to 50 per cent. That looks likely to be dropped back to 40 because of fears it would be a threat to the viability of schemes – particularly those on smaller sites.

Ms Wigginton added: "It may be difficult to demonstrate with certainty that 50 per cent is a viable percentage in many cases, which will lead to more difficult and protracted negotiations which may not ultimately achieve a much higher total amount of affordable housing."

Despite a good level of support for the protection of character and form of villages, many did not agree that a proposed total embargo on house building in smaller villages was necessary. Some flexibility for limited development which respected the character of the villages was therefore the preferred option.

The council tries to preserve a measured approach to house building using a mechanism called the Selby Action Area Plan to keep track of developments.

Consideration has been given to increasing the percentage of dwellings to be built under this plan over the remainder of its life to 2026. But a flood study suggests it may be difficult to find sites for the 3,000 properties already in the pipeline.

n The guidelines were being drawn up earlier this year before last week's surprise announcement that four possible sites for a 15,000-home eco town were all in Selby district.