The Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, and Mayor of London, Boris Johnson have announced that 50,000 new homes, across 20 new housing zones, will be created in London, while visiting a prospective new zone in Enfield, North London.

Housing zones are a new approach being used by the government, to get new homes built quickly.

Local authorities identify and package together brownfield land which could be used for development into a housing zone, remove all unnecessary planning restrictions across it and partner with a developer to build new homes. The absence of planning constraints in these zones will significantly accelerate construction.

Central government supports housing zones by making loans available to local authorities for necessary infrastructure and other remedial work on the site. Last November, the Mayor's Housing Strategy set out plans for 10 potential housing zones, and today's announcement will double that as central government and the Greater London Authority (GLA) will each offer £200m for 20 zones.

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The Chancellor and Mayor launched the scheme today at Meridian Water, an 85-hectare former industrial site in Enfield that has the potential for 5,000 new homes, new schools, a library and commercial space, linking to the nearby Lea Valley regional park.

To ensure that developments in housing zones progress as quickly as possible, the government will grant the Mayor substantial powers, in the form of Mayoral Development Orders, to remove planning obstacles.

These new zones are in line with the major shake-up of planning rules to support house building announced by the Chancellor in his Mansion House Speech, yesterday.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer said: "A key part of our long term economic plan is to build the houses Britain needs, so that families have the economic security that comes with home ownership. House building is at its highest since 2008 across London and England, but there is still a lot more to do to tackle the UK's long term housing challenge."

(CD/JP)