Government pledges to build 400,000 homes in Autumn Statement

The government is set to launch the largest house building drive in more than 30 years to help solve the “crisis of home ownership in our country”.

Chancellor George Osborne will unveil plans in today’s Autumn Statement and Spending Review to build 400,000 homes as part of the government’s commitment to boosting home ownership.

First-time buyers under 40 will have the opportunity to buy a property at a 20% discount and a raft of new measures will also be introduced to encourage developers to build affordable homes.

Osborne will tell MPs in House of Commons today: “In the end, spending reviews like this come down to choices about what your priorities are. And I am clear: in this spending review, we choose housing. Above all, we choose homes that people can buy.

“For there is a crisis of home ownership in our country.

“We made a start in the last Parliament, and with schemes like Help to Buy the number of first-time buyers rose by 6%.

“But frankly we need to do much more. Today, we set out our bold plan to back families who aspire to buy their own home.”

Osborne will confirm plans to build 200,000 starter homes which will be available at a discount of 20% to those under 40. The government has earmarked £2.3 billion for private developers, with property values capped at £450,000 in London and £250,000 in the rest of the country.

The government will also commit £4 billion to housing associations, local authorities and private developers to build 135,000 homes as part of the Help to Buy programme.

Funding totalling £200 million will be provided for the building of 10,000 homes that will be available for rent at 20% below the market value. A further £400 million will also go towards building 8,000 specialist homes for the elderly or disabled.

The Spending Review will set out government spending plans over next five years. The Chancellor is expected to cut £20 billion from public spending and £12 billion form annual welfare under plans to achieve a budget surplus by 2019-2020.

John Healey MP, Labour’s shadow housing minister, strongly criticised the government’s plans and its record on housing. He said Osborne’s first act as Chancellor in 2010 was to slash housing investment by 60%, and his plans today could mean 40% less to build the homes we need compared to the investment programme he inherited from Labour.

“If hot air built homes, then Conservative ministers would have our housing crisis sorted.

“A matter of weeks ago the housing minister promised a million more homes, now George Osborne is saying they’ll build 400,000 more.

“The Tories’ housing record speaks for itself. The lowest peacetime level of housebuilding since David Lloyd George was prime minister in the 1920s, home ownership fallen year-on-year to the lowest level in a generation, and alongside the lowest number of genuinely affordable homes built in two decades, the number of affordable homes to buy halved since 2010.”