The Town and Country Planning Association welcomes Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s pledge to speed up the building of homes and revive the building of social housing.

The association believes the biggest challenges will be providing the skills and capacity to deliver, and releasing land at a price that enables the necessary social and environmental infrastructure.

The TCPA urges the government to realise the opportunity for all new housing, whether within existing urban centres, new settlements or urban extensions as it contributes to lower carbon living and better environments for all.

Gideon Amos, TCPA chief executive, said: “The Prime Minister is right to make affordable housing a priority. However, those public bodies and government departments that own land must provide it at a discount to make these housing and environmental gains possible – high quality low carbon communities must be the end result of the initiative.”

The TCPA will support planning legislation that includes national planning statements by ministers and welcomes the Government’s statement on the use of the New Towns Act to deliver affordable homes in places where they are needed.