Hopes raised over mothballed housing schemes in Yorkshire

Housebuilders across the region are currently considering bids as part of Government plans to build as many as 16,000 new homes on sites that already have planning permission, but were shut down because of the current economic conditions.

York-based housebuilder Persimmon said it has several sites in mind, but it will need to study the details.

Persimmon’s north division chief executive Jeff Fairburn said: “I think this is very positive for the industry and more importantly for the house buyer. It’s a big boost for the first time buyer and will have a knock on effect throughout the house buying market.”

Mr Fairburn also welcomed the Government’s decision to offer first-time buyers of newly-built homes 95 per cent mortgages.

However, the Federation of Master Builders, which represents small to medium-sized housebuilders, criticised the Government’s new strategy as being “far from radical” and said it would only make a small step to tackle “the worst housing crisis we have seen for many years”.

The Federation’s regional director for Yorkshire, Phil Parkinson, said: “Unless red tape and decision making is made easier, this new strategy will get tied up.

“We welcome the news that buyers will find it easier to buy new homes, but it only goes so far,” he added.

Scarborough Borough Councillor Colin Challen called for the funding to be ringfenced regionally to avoid Yorkshire becoming a victim of any greater North-South divide.

Coun Challen represents the town’s Castle ward – which is among the top 10 per cent of the nation’s most deprived communities.

He said: “It might be welcome if the Government is prepared to ringfence part of the £400m for the hard-hit regions like Yorkshire. Otherwise I fear that more expensive housing areas will suck the money out of this scheme and leave deprived areas like the Castle ward in Scarborough with no benefit whatsoever,” he added.

A Government spokeswoman said it was too early to say which stalled sites will be targeted, but said the bidding process would ensure cash went to the neediest areas.

Bradford Liberal Democrat MP David Ward said: “The new plans look very promising. We need to make sure this delivers in Bradford where we are currently only building a quarter of the homes we need.

“Extra cash for empty homes is particularly welcome as we have more than 7000 long term empty properties across the district.

Bringing these back into use would provide enough places to live for everyone on our housing waiting lists.”

But former Labour Housing Minister John Healey, MP for Wentworth, said: “This is reheating and relaunching some of the steps we took during the last recession of 2009, but on a much smaller scale.

“A boost to housing is welcome but it’s too little and it’s late in coming,” he added.

In a joint foreword to the report, Prime Minister David Cameron and his Liberal Democrat deputy Nick Clegg said: “One of the most important things each generation can do for the next is to build high-quality homes that will stand the test of time.

“But for decades in Britain we have under-built. “These problems – entrenched over decades – have deepened over the past few years. The housing market is one of the biggest victims of the credit crunch.”