HUNDREDS of thousands of extra low-cost homes are to be built in the UK, according to the Housing Green Paper released this week. About £8 billion has been set aside to help local councils to find and develop land for 45,000 new homes each year for rent and 25,000 for sale in shared-ownership schemes. Other proposals include:

Local authorities can team up with housing associations or set up companies to help to develop new homes. They will be free to reinvest any profits and those councils that speed up development will be rewarded with extra government grants. Those that fail to meet housebuilding targets may have their planning decisions overturned.

Many of the new affordable homes will be in rural areas, but the greenbelt will be saved. “Community land trust” schemes have been set up in Devon, Cornwall, Dorset, Somerset, Shropshire and Lancashire.

First-time buyers with a household income of less than £60,000 will be eligible for a government loan of 17.5 per cent, which they can use as a deposit on a home. These loans can be used with a mortgage from any lender.

Good houses don’t just happen at the click of a Prime Minister’s fingers - they will take time

Background

• Comment: The housing shortage

• A new property map of England

• What a decade brought

• Red tape to be cut for home extensions

• Brown to build five eco towns

Comment: The housing shortage

Government statistics, not a byword for reliability, must not be the only proof that homes are needed

The “new town” will be revived, but as an eco-development. Councils must bid for an eco-town of up to 20,000 people to be built near them: the zero-carbon stand-alone settlements (all new homes must be built to be zero-carbon after 2016) will set standards for environmental friendliness, family-friendly homes, transport and green space.

More than 2,500 acres of Highways Agency and former British Rail land suitable for housing has been found – and the Ministry of Defence has promised six sites. Another 80 sites are under consideration; the Government has promised to find enough surplus land for 200,000 homes.

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