THOUSANDS of landowners are to be stung by a £3 billion windfall tax as part of a massive housebuilding programme to be announced by the Chancellor on Monday.

Gordon Brown will use his Pre-Budget Report to disclose ambitious targets for hundreds of thousands of homes to be built over the next decade, The Times has learnt.

As part of the Government’s response to the Kate Barker report on housing, the Chancellor will also be pressing ahead with proposals to tax landowners who sell their land after obtaining planning permission.

At present the value of a piece of undeveloped land can increase tenfold once planning consent is granted but the landowner can keep the profit.

Under the plans, the Chancellor would take a proportion of the gain made by the landowner — likely to be about 20 per cent. It is understood that this will be earmarked to invest in homes and infrastructure for new communities such as transport links and schools.

But the plan has already been attacked by property developers who claim that it could lead to less land being made available for housing.

John Ritblat, the chairman of British Land, the property company, said last month that such a tax would be “utter madness” and suggested that it could stifle development.

Mr Ritblat gave warning that the new tax, also known as a planning gain supplement, which is likely to apply to land for residential and commercial development, would backfire just as the housing market was beginning to recover.

On Monday, Mr Brown may announce different options on how the windfall tax could be levied to ensure that it does not prohibit new developments, and he may exclude some land.

Organisations such as the Town and Country Planning Association have said that the money must not go back to a general pot in the Treasury. “My concern is that the majority of the revenue money should go on providing a local infrastructure for all communities if new housing is to come forward,” Gideon Amos, its director, said.

Mr Amos estimated that about £3 billion a year could be raised by the new tax. “In some greenfield sites, between £100,000 and £200,000 could be raised per acre,” he said.

Yvette Cooper, the Housing Minister, signalled Mr Brown’s programme yesterday after setting out the case for an urgent expansion to help first-time buyers and young people.

Ms Cooper told The Times that within ten years only 31 per cent of all two-earner couples aged 30 would be able to afford a home — compared with 54 per cent now. She also said that in the past 30 years the number of households had increased by 30 per cent but housebuilding had fallen by 50 per cent. “We need to act now to make houses more affordable for the next generation,” Ms Cooper said. “Apart from help for first-time buyers, support for social housing and low mortgage rates, we also need to recognise the importance of building more homes.”

In her report in March last year Ms Barker, a member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee, called for between 70,000 and 120,000 houses to be built every year in addition to current plans. The Town and Country Planning Association has also argued that at least 220,000 homes need to be built each year — 64,000 more than at present. It is still unclear how many extra homes will be announced on Monday. Sources said that the targets would be ambitious even though John Prescott’s plans for tens of thousands of new homes have already met opposition.

The Deputy Prime Minister suggested yesterday that housing developers could be forced to disclose the scale of their landholdings to shame them into building more homes.

Mr Brown will announce an overhaul of planning laws to ensure that the homes are built more quickly.

Another measure expected to be included in the Pre-Budget Report is giving local authorities a share in the profits when they grant planning permission for privately owned land.

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