SOUTHAMPTON Itchen MP John Denham is to press the architect to include an allocation of 50 per cent council housing in plans for a former city shipbuilding site.

The Labour MP will meet architect Lord Rogers over plans for the Vosper Thorneycroft site on the banks of the River Itchen in Woolston.

Mr Denham and the Southampton Labour party are campaigning for affordable, rented housing to make up at least 50 per cent of the housing to be built on the site when it is redeveloped.

Mr Denham said: "There is a real shortage of affordable, rented homes in Southampton.

"Many families are living in overcrowded accommodation around the city.

"The huge site at Woolston is an opportunity to make a difference and build homes that people can afford.

"It is a great boost for Southampton that we have one of the best-known architects in the world working on this site.

"So if anyone can show how we can make affordable housing an integral part of a high-class development, he can."

Plans for the redundant shipyard, which was bought by the South East England Development Agency for £15m, include housing, leisure and employment when VT finally vacates the site in March next year.

Lord Rogers, responsible for designing the Welsh Assembly in Cardiff and the Lloyds building in London, was selected from a shortlist of five bidders to head up the prestigious scheme.

Mr Denham wants to force the city's ruling Liberal Democrat group to allocate at least 50 per cent of the land for new council homes.

At the moment, city chiefs say that only 25 per cent of new homes on the site will be for social housing.

It is hoped that an outline planning application will be submitted by next summer and redevelopment should be completed in 2008.

Mr Denham added: "I am looking forward to discussing with Lord Rogers how we can include a large element of social housing in this exciting and important development."