Brown to promise million new homeowners

01-Apr-2005

One million first time buyers would be created during the five years of a third term of Labour government, the chancellor will claim today.

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In a joint announcement with Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, Mr Brown will reveal plans to build 15,000 homes for first-time buyers on 100 former NHS sites through development agency English Partnerships, in a move to provide a vast swathe of new affordable homes.

Aiming to boost homeownership to record levels with more help for teachers, nurses and other key workers, Mr Brown will say: "We are proposing a further major extension of Britain's home-owning, asset-owning, property-owning democracy."

He will also stress the importance of first time buyers using properties as investments for the future, saying: "Homes are not just places to live. With more and more people owning their homes, houses are becoming ever more important as assets."

At the same time, Mr Prescott will set out plans to extend shared equity schemes to make it easier for the low paid to get on the housing ladder.

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The Conservatives have already pledged to allow a million more tenants in housing association the right to buy their homes in a bid to create more first time buyers.

The Liberal Democrats meanwhile have announced plans to build 100,000 new affordable homes on publicly owned land.

Labour is aiming to take the number of new homeowners since 1997 to two million and wants to have 24 million households in England by 2020.

With nearly 200,000 homes built, Labour appears on course to reach that goal

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