Gordon Brown has announced a drive to build more homes. The Prime Minister has unveiled 22 new Bills for the autumn including measures to help more people get on the housing ladder by building more affordable homes.

His plans mean that around 200,000 extra homes will be built over the next ten years with plans for a million more. His plans have alarmed environmentalists, particularly over the impact in the South-East of England. This area of the country is already fairly crowded and some new homes may have to be built on green belt area. However Brown has said that the green belt will not be ripped up and that all new homes will have to meet strict environmental criteria.

Brown is aiming to raise the target for new homes being built from 200,000 per year to 240,000 in 2016. He has also announced that 550 sites are being examined where publicly owned land could be released for housing development, potentially adding a further 100,000 new homes into the mix.

Town halls may also go back into the house-building business under this new drive, allowing a further 60,000 houses to be built on council-owned sites. New rules would allow the councils to fund these developments by borrowing money against future rental income.

A Housing Bill will bring together the Housing Corporation and English Partnership (the national regeneration agency) to identify land owned by the public sector which could be used for property development. The focus of this would be to redevelop brownfield sites.

It has already been confirmed that five new eco-towns will be built, holding 100,000 ‘green’ properties.

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