John Prescott launched further details of the Design for Manufacture competition, challenging house builders to design high quality homes with a construction cost of around £60,000. Public sector land is being provided for 1,000 homes; the first phase of 470 homes are to be built at Oxley Park, Milton Keynes; Oxford Road, Aylesbury; Upton, Northampton and Allerton Bywater Millennium Community, near Leeds.
The Government's national regeneration agency English Partnerships (EP) will also oversee the delivery of thousands more affordable homes on many of the sites in a portfolio of nearly one hundred ex-NHS sites, the first tranche of which will be transferred from the Department of Health to EP next week.
Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott said: "Improving access to high quality, affordable housing is crucial to our policy of increasing prosperity and social justice in every region. We have shown that with imagination and determination it is possible to provide attractive homes in good locations, while protecting the countryside and combating sprawl. By insisting on higher design standards we can build more homes using less land to create truly sustainable communities."
Chancellor Gordon Brown said: "The Britain I believe in is a Britain of ambition and aspiration where there is no ceiling on talent, no cap on potential, and no limit to opportunity. And this Britain of ambition and aspiration is a Britain where more and more people must and will have the chance to own their own homes.
"With home ownership expanding into new areas and new groups, today I see Britain as one of the worlds greatest wealth owning democracies where the widely held chance for not just some but all to own assets marks out a new dimension in citizenship and makes Britain a beacon for the world. Assets for all enabling opportunity for all."
Low cost home ownership received a further boost today when the Deputy Prime Minister launched a key consultation paper, setting out Government's proposals to introduce simpler, fairer home ownership opportunities for more people, whilst protecting the supply of social homes.
HomeBuy: Expanding the Opportunity to Own extends the HomeBuy scheme, first announced in the ODPM's five year strategy, Sustainable Communities: Homes for All (January 2005).
HomeBuy will help key workers, social tenants and other first time buyers to buy a share of a home and so get a first step on the housing ladder - with three variants offering choice in the type of home people can buy:
* New Build HomeBuy and Open Market HomeBuy would take elements of existing low cost home ownership schemes to offer simpler, fairer assistance to those who want to buy a share of a new home built with public subsidy, or a share of a home that is for sale on the open market
* Social HomeBuy would introduce new opportunities for thousands of social tenants who cannot afford or do not have the Right to Buy to buy a share of their existing home with a discount on their share - and would protect the supply of social homes by enabling landlords to reinvest sales proceeds
Homes for All announced that over 80,000 households will be helped into home ownership by 2010. The Government now proposes to go even further. It is at an advanced stage of discussions with the Council of Mortgage Lenders to help an extra 20,000 first time buyers by introducing private finance to fund equity loans - meaning that New Build and Open Market HomeBuy could help up to 100,000 into home ownership by 2010.
Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, said Social HomeBuy would help councils and housing associations to deliver the Government's five-year strategy on sustainable communities.
"Social HomeBuy will support regeneration and the creation of more mixed communities on estates. Working tenants will be able to realise their home ownership aspirations without leaving their existing home, meaning a better mix of incomes in neighbourhoods, and more sustainable communities.
"Of course not everyone wants to be a homeowner - some prefer or need to rent in the social sector. Protecting the supply of social housing and helping those who are homeless or living in temporary accommodation is a top priority. Because the proceeds of Homebuy will be reinvested in housing we will be able to free up social lets for those who most need them."
He added that, in this way, helping 5,000 more people a year into home ownership through Social HomeBuy could also assist an additional 9,000 households out of temporary accommodation by 2010.
The consultation closes on 24 June 2005. The Government is aiming to work closely with local authorities, housing associations and other key stakeholders to have the new HomeBuy arrangements up and running by April 2006.
