Housing minister announces progress in putting housing ‘centre stage’

Housing minister, Grant Shapps, has outlined the progress made so far with the government’s housing strategy and highlighted the vital role housebuilding will play in the economic recovery. He said: “With the Prime Minister putting housing centre stage on the road to economic recovery, I am determined that we shall not repeat mistakes of the past.”

He then explained that enough government land had been identified to accomadate 80,000 new homes and work was continuing with organisations, including the BBC and Royal Mail, to identify more potential sites.

He confirmed that the government’s mortgage indemnity scheme, the NewBuy Guarantee, would be launched in March for UK citizens wanting to buy a brand new house or flat with a value of up to £500,000.

The Minister announced progress on the Get Britain Building Fund, which will allocate £45 million to help unlock 18 stalled sites and deliver over a 1,000 homes. The government has also allocated £500 million for the Growing Places Fund to support 39 local enterprise partnerships, which will it is hoped will help create thousands of jobs in construction and related industries.