Brown to help million buy homes

Gordon Brown is to promise to help another one million people buy their homes over the next five years as Labour tries to put personal prosperity and the strength of the economy at the heart of its appeal to the voters at the election.

Gordon Brown is to promise to help another one million people buy their homes over the next five years as Labour tries to put personal prosperity and the strength of the economy at the heart of its appeal to the voters at the election.

The Chancellor will set a target of 75 per cent of Britons owning their houses by 2010 as he announces "a further major extension of Britain's home-owning, asset-owning, property-owning democracy".

He told the Cabinet yesterday, in what is certain to be its final meeting before Tony Blair announces the 5 Mayelection next week, that Labour had to focus on the "clear choice" between Tory cuts and government investment in public services.

He predicted that voters "will recognise a Labour government has not only brought stability and growth, but it is a Labour government that will bring stability and growth in future".

He said later: "Our decision as a Labour government is that the centrepiece of our manifesto for the coming election will be the economic future of Britain."

The Chancellor will underline his return to the frontline of Labour's election drive today by announcing the sites for subsidised starter homes for the low-paid, the building of 15,000 houses on surplus NHS land and cash to regenerate areas with weak property markets.

He will say: "The Britain I believe in is a Britain of ambition and aspiration where there is no ceiling on talent, no cap on potential, and no limit to opportunity. And this Britain of ambition and aspiration is a Britain where more and more people must, and will, have the chance to own their own homes."