Building of new towns will start before election

THE construction of three new towns will begin before the next election, the Housing Secretary will pledge at Labour's party conference.

- PRESS ASSOCIATION

Housing Secretary Steve Reed sports a 'build, baby, build', cap as he speaks on day one of the Labour Party Conference

The UK Government will "do whatever it takes to get Britain building", Steve Reed is expected to tell Labour members on the opening day of the party's annual gathering in Liverpool.

Work on 12 new towns will be taken forward, Mr Reed is to announce, as recommended by a report from the government's New Towns Taskforce, published yesterday morning.

But the priority for construction in the current Parliament will likely be Tempsford in Bedfordshire, Leeds South Bank, and Crews Hill, north London, described by Labour as "most promising sites".

Each of the dozen new towns will have at least 10,000 homes, and could collectively result in 300,000 houses being built across England.

Mr Reed is expected to welcome a recommendation by the New Towns Taskforce that at least 40% of these new homes should be affordable.

In its manifesto, Labour pledged to begin work on 1.5 million new homes over the course of the Parliament, to expand home ownership to more Britons.