Jul 25 2007
The PM has said that many more people are to be helped on to the property ladder.
Speaking during his regular Downing Street press conference, Mr Brown said that the Housing Minister, Yvette Cooper, would outline the plans to build two million new houses over the next ten years in a Green Paper on housing.
The new homes will include 240,000 environmentally sustainable "eco-houses in environmentally friendly situations like eco-villages and eco-towns".
Mr Brown said that the plans were part of his response to the "aspirations of the British people" for change in areas such as housing, health and education.
He said:
"Now if only a few young people were able to get on to the housing ladder for the first time, that would be an achievement. But we are talking about hundreds of thousands of people who in the next few years may be able to buy their homes for the first time and that represents us trying to respond to the rising aspirations of the British people."
Speaking in Parliament later, as she presented the Green Paper, Yvette Cooper said:
"These proposals represent not just the most significant programme of housebuilding for decades, but an ambitious, positive response to the growing challenges that many people face in their day-to-day lives."
Click here for the full transcript of the press conference.