PM vows to tackle housing issues

Gordon Brown has vowed to make new housing reforms a priority for his government.

Breaking with tradition, Mr Brown revealed which bills he plans to introduce in the next session of Parliament ahead of the Queen's Speech. He explained that more creating affordable housing would be a key aim.

Mr Brown explained to Radio 4's Today programme that the government would explore a number of ways to increase the supply of housing - from new builds and innovative mortgage deals to policies to encourage landlords to provide reasonable social housing.

"This is a new and urgent challenge that we have got to meet," he said during the broadcast. "You are not going to solve this problem overnight but you can make housing more affordable for a large number of people who have been squeezed out of the market.

"There are a large number of public sites, brownfield land, that can be released for housing and we want to do that as quickly as possible.

"We have got to face up to the fact that we have been building too few houses in Britain."

Earlier this month, Arla claimed that landlords had a vital role to play while more affordable housing was made a available.

Adrian Turner, Chief Executive of Arla, explained that the buy-to-let sector was "vitally important" to the UK housing market.