Housing Dominates Brown's Agenda

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said he will put housing, health and education at the heart of his parliamentary programme for the next year.

Mr Brown broke with tradition by announcing 23 bills and draft bills to MPs months ahead of the Queen's Speech.

"In the interests of good and open government and public debate that each year the Prime Minister make a summer statement to this House so that initial thinking, previously private, can now be the subject of widespread and informed public consultation.

And today in advance of final decisions the Leader of the House is publishing details of our initial list of proposed legislative measures - inviting debate on them in both Houses this month and making provision for region-by-region deliberation and responses"

He announced plans for more "affordable housing" and raising the school leaving age.

A new educational opportunity bill will mean that for the first time not just some but all young people will stay in education or training until 18.

"Putting affordable housing within the reach not just of the few but the many is vital both to meeting individual aspirations and a better future for our country, so for housing and planning in the 2007-08 session there are three proposed bills. Now through this decade and right up to 2020 I want us - in environmentally friendly ways using principally brownfield land and building eco towns and villages - to meet housing need by building over a quarter of a million more homes than previously planned, a total by 2020 of 3 million new homes for families across the country.

So for England we will raise the annual housebuilding target for 2016 from 200,000 to 240,000 new homes a year"

 

But Conservative leader David Cameron dismissed the statement, saying: "We've heard it all before."

Housing targets

The Queen's Speech is normally when prime ministers outline their programme, but Mr Brown said the statement would offer more time for consultation.

Up to 100,000 homes could be built on around 550 surplus sites owned by arms of central government such as the Ministry of Defence and the NHS, Mr Brown said.

In total, three million new homes would be built by 2020 - up 250,000 from the previous plan, he said.

In full: Brown's statement
Guide: Housing in the UK