Advertisement

Cameron Demands House Building 'Crusade'

David Cameron is calling for a "national crusade to get homes built" as he sets out the goals he wants to achieve by the time he leaves Downing Street in 2020.

In a 50-minute speech ending the Conservative conference in Manchester, the Prime Minister is pledging to launch a home-owning revolution "from generation rent to generation buy".

Mr Cameron is promising an overhaul of Whitehall and town hall planning rules which he says prevent house builders from offering low cost, affordable home ownership.

"When a generation of hardworking men and women in their 20s and 30s are waking up each morning in their childhood bedrooms - that should be a wake-up call for us," he is telling delegates.

"We need a national crusade to get homes built. That means banks lending, government releasing land, and yes - planning being reformed."

Mr Cameron is saying that until now "affordable homes" have been for people to rent, not own, but he is now proposing a "dramatic shift in housing policy".

He was expected to say: "Those old rules which said to developers: you can build on this site, but only if you build affordable homes for rent, we're replacing them with new rules.

"You can build here and those affordable homes can be available to buy. Yes, from generation rent to generation buy."

On his potential legacy, Mr Cameron claims the Tories can make his 10 years in power "a defining decade for our country ... the turnaround decade and one which people will look back on and say: 'That's the time when the tide turned'."

According to Number 10 insiders, he claims to have made major achievements by 2020 on poverty, social mobility, children in care, prisons, education and extremism.

A senior source told Sky News: "People talk about the roaring '20s and the swinging '60s. The 2010s can be the decade when the country was really turned round."

Mr Cameron's speech follows the inevitable "beauty parade" of would-be successors who have revealed their leadership ambitions and personal manifestos during this conference.

In a controversial speech on immigration that was condemned by business leaders and political opponents, the Home Secretary Theresa May set out a right wing, Eurosceptic agenda that some critics claimed was a throwback to the "nasty party" she famously said the Tories were perceived as in 2002.

In sharp contrast, London's mayor Boris Johnson called himself a "one nation" Tory and, in a swipe at the leadership front runner - Chancellor George Osborne - on cuts in tax credits, said: "We must ensure that as we reform welfare and we cut taxes that we protect the hardest working and lowest paid."

Besides launching his housing crusade, Mr Cameron was also expected to devote large parts of his conference speech to the economy and Europe.

He is also expected to attack Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn by claiming the Tories are the party of economic security and national security.

:: Use our interactive tool to give your instant reaction to David Cameron's speech - and answer poll questions along the way.

:: Watch the speech live from 11.30am on Sky News, skynews.com and our mobile apps.