The Construction Products Association has called for chancellor Gordon Brown to double the capital spending budget of the Housing Corporation in the comprehensive spending review.
The corporation made a similar request last week (HT 27 June, page 8).

The CPA says the extra funds would allow 42,000 affordable homes to be built each year.

It also called for total government spending on social housing to rise to £13.4bn over the next three years. It said this would allow the number of non-decent social homes to be halved to 850,000 by 2006.

In his Mansion House address to business leaders last week, Brown reassured housebuilders of his commitment to “take seriously the case for further new housing development”.

According to the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, a third more surveyors reported a rise in housebuilding last quarter than reported a fall.