Housing Minister Grant Shapps has offered developers a 'Build Now, Pay Later' deal to get work started on thousands of new homes without facing the expense of buying the land upfront.

He published details of the first sites to be made available under 'Build Now, Pay Later', an innovative scheme designed to give a shot in the arm to housebuilders that have struggled to get their developments up and running.

Under the scheme, housebuilders pay for the land after they have started work on the new homes, offering a lifeline to those struggling with cash flow problems and enabling them to start building straight away.

Over the past decade, housebuilding slumped to its lowest levels for any peacetime year since 1924. The Minister insisted that making this land available could offer a huge boost to the numbers of homes being built and jobs supported.

So Mr Shapps has announced moves by the first Government agency to bring some of its surplus land forward under this programme.

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The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) is leading the way, offering the first six sites for development, many of which will be possible under 'Build Now, Pay Later'. These sites could lead to as many as 3,000 new homes being built and as many as 18,000 jobs in construction and related industries being supported.

Up to 40 per cent of land suitable for housing development - as much as 7,500 hectares - is "sitting idle" in public sector land banks. It is estimated that making this land available owned by central Government alone could help developers build more than 60,000 new homes over 10 years.

So to ensure these sites are the first of many to be made available, Government departments from across Whitehall will publish their own plans to release land - and will be held to account for the numbers of homes and jobs created as a result.

Mr Shapps said: "Draconian top-down targets brought housebuilding to its knees, reaching the lowest level for any peacetime year since 1924. Radical reform is needed to give a boost to developers and kickstart building so we can get the homes this country needs.

"Up to 40 per cent of the land ready for development in this country is simply sitting idle in the hands of the public sector. So today I'm giving the green light to the Homes and Communities Agency to lead the way by making six new sites available for development.

"These will be the first of many sites as all Government departments will now be asked to make land available for housebuilding and, crucially, will be held accountable for the homes built and jobs supported through this. And many of these sites will be available under Build Now, Pay Later, giving builders access to land they only pay for once the homes are built and giving a boost to the level of housebuilding in this country."

(CD/GK)