Minister hails campaign to get people building

The housing minister Grant Shapps has hailed a scheme to get people in the UK building again, after it showed initial signs of very good success.

The minister said that there had been an overwhelming demand to the scheme, as he said that it was three times oversubscribed as people look to get back onto building sites to increase the housing stock in the UK property market.

Mr Shapps unveiled a £420 million Get Britain Building plan, designed to help to boost the number of new homes being built, and restart projects which had stalled, largely due to the fact that finance had dictated this.

The fact, said Mr Shapps, that the scheme has had 176 expressions of interest, covering 392 building sites, showed the appetite for boosting the number of properties for sale across the country.

It has been said that the scheme will be looking to bring projects back into action, with it likely that the number of new houses that will be built as a direct result of this housing scheme will amount to 16,000.

Mr Shapps also said that the scheme should create somewhere in the region of 30,000 jobs across the country, helping somewhat to deal with the unemployment issue.

"With the prime minister putting housing centre stage in the road to economic recovery we are pulling out all the stops to get the jobs created and the red tape cut to ensure we get the homes this country needs built.

"So I am greatly encouraged by the clamour from developers large and small to get Britain building by applying for a share of our £420 million fund to unlock stalled sites across the country."

He said that 18 of the most difficult sites in the country had already been outlined for sharing £45 million between them in a bid to get the builders back on site, and build 1,300 new homes.

Some of the reasons for the boost could include schemes like FirstBuy, under which first-time buyers can buy a new home at just 80 per cent of the total price of the home through a series of loans.