Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps he has taken to increase house building by 2030.

This Government is committed to increasing housing supply and home ownership. We have already made progress - housing completions in the quarter to March 2015 are up 21% on the same quarter in the previous year; starts on new homes in the year to March 2015 totalled 140,500, the highest annual total since 2007; and planning permissions were granted for 261,000 homes in the year to March 2015 – but there is more to be done.

This year we will introduce a Housing Bill to unlock brownfield land to build new homes; provide the framework to deliver starter homes and extend Right to Buy to housing association tenants.

We will help builders to build: Public sector land has already been released to deliver over 109,000 new homes and over 100,000 homes have been supported through the £1.3 billion Large Sites programme. Over this Parliament we have ambitions to release public sector land for 150,000 homes; kick-start development in 20 Housing Zones outside London, which with 8 other shortlisted sites has the potential to deliver up to 45,000 new homes; create a £1 billion Brownfield Fund; and provide capacity funding to support the development of new garden settlements. We will support small and medium sized enterprises through the Builders’ Finance Fund (2015-17) and the £100 million Housing Growth Partnership with Lloyds Bank. We want to double the number of custom and self-built homes through ‘Right to Build’ and a £150 million fund for serviced plots.

Nearly 2 million households have been helped to realise aspirations to own their homes through Government-backed schemes. This Government will build 200,000 Starter Homes exclusively for first-time buyers under 40 years old, at a minimum of 20 per cent below open market value; extend Help to Buy Mortgages to 2020; and introduce a Help to Buy ISA to help people save for a deposit. Finally, we will give more people the chance to own their home by extending Right to Buy discounts to tenants of housing associations.