Hot on the heels of announcing a £14m new build programme of 129 council homes in Birmingham, Councillor John Lines, Cabinet Member for Housing, has unveiled ambitious proposals to beat the housing market downturn and offer incentives to developers to once more build houses for sale.

Addressing a Developer's market place event, Councillor Lines announced that the Municipal Housing Trust plans to build homes for rent and homes for sale in Phase II of its programme.

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Councillor Lines said: "We understand the risks that developers have to take up front – borrowing money to buy land to build, finding the costs at risk for planning and design – and that these are big risks in the current market. But we want to talk to developers about how we can reduce those risks and get the private house building market moving again.

"Instead of selling land to developers, we are keen to explore the option of sharing profits with developers when new homes are sold. Typically, when homes are sold we recoup the value of the land once they are sold but we are keen to ensure developers would not need to find the money to buy land 'up front'."

(CD/GK)