Prime Minister David Cameron has confirmed his government's commitment to helping housebuilders build more starter homes for sale, saying he wanted to change "generation rent" into "generation buy".
Speaking at the Conservative party conference, the PM launched what he called "a national crusade to get homes built". He confirmed that the government's Starter Home initiative would go ahead, announcing "a dramatic shift in housing policy" in which planning rules would be changed to allow housebuilders to provide starter homes for sale instead of affordable homes for rent.
The government wants to see 200,000 starter homes delivered in the next five years. Stewart Baseley, executive chairman of the Home Builders Federation, welcomed the speech: "We welcome the government's plans to deliver on its pledge to improve home ownership opportunities for young people.
"Over the past 25 years, as building new homes has become ever more costly and complex, output has fallen and the housing ladder has slipped further out of reach for many.
"Greater flexibility in the way affordable housing is provided should not only speed up the process of securing an implementable planning permission but also make more sites viable for new housing. This will in turn increase availability of homes of all types and help address the chronic shortage that has been allowed to develop. Housebuilders are committed to delivering high quality, low cost homes for a new generation of first-time buyers, if the policy environment allows them to."
