When will York housing blueprint plagued by delays finally be finished?

York City Council’s leadership said yesterday that “good progress” was being made, despite work on its plan for housing and employment development having started in 2006.

And next week, councillors will be told that the final plan is unlikely to be submitted to the government before next spring.

National Housing Federation research found there was a shortfall of 2,592 properties in York between 2011 and 2015, while the city’s £243,756 average house price last year was 9.6 times the average income.

A 20-year plan for how the city would meet this housing demand was submitted to the government in May 2012, by which stage a total of £1.1m of taxpayers’ money had been spent.

But the Local Development Framework core strategy was withdrawn within months after a planning inspector questioned its “soundness”.

It was said then that an overhauled document would be in place by late 2014 at the earliest, but a comprehensive draft of the document – now called the Local Plan – will not go out to public consultation until September.

Following that, the final draft will be prepared before another public consultation in early 2018.

Council leader David Carr said: “This is an important document for our city as it will set out how we respond to future housing need and demand for development to support employment while protecting York’s character.”

The timetable will form part of an update to the council’s Local Plan Working Group on Monday, before it goes to the Executive on July 13.

It will seek approval to create the comprehensive draft, based on earlier consultation about preferred sites for homes and jobs.