Ed Miliband has pledged to solve Britain’s housing crisis by ensuring 200,000 homes are built a year.
The Labour leader, in a conference speech focusing heavily on the cost of living, pledged that a Labour government would hit the 200,000 annual target by 2020.
Mr Miliband, addressing Labour members in Brighton today, said: ‘There are nine million people in this country who are renting a home, many of whom would want to buy.
‘We don’t just have a cost of living crisis – we have a housing crisis too’.
He warned that, at the current rate of house building, Britain will have 2 million too few homes by 2020.
Mr Miliband said Labour would give a clear message to developers that they ‘can’t just sit on land and refuse to build’. ‘We will give them a very clear message, either use the land or lose the land, that is what a Labour government would do.’
Mr Miliband also pledged to identify new towns and garden cities. He said a Labour government would freeze energy prices for 20 months from 2015.