Downing Street promises 13,000 new homes with support for smaller builders

Up to 13,000 new homes could soon be built on UK public land, many of which by smaller building firms, as Westminster declared it was "pulling out all the stops" to mitigate the housing crisis.

In what Prime Minister David Cameron described as a "huge shift in government policy", small developers will be able to buy plots of land in England with planning permission already in place.

Around 40% of the new builds are planned to be what the government described as "starter homes", aimed at first-time buyers.

The plan was a result of the government using its direct commissioning powers, which allow it to take over responsibility for developing land.

"We know that consistently 90% of people aspire to own their own home, and for many years now home ownership has been in decline", communities secretary Greg Clark told the BBC.

He said the top eight building firms accounted for around half of the residential construction market, and smaller firms needed to be involved in the government's plans.

David Cameron's office said the policy was part of a "radical new policy shift", with up to 13,000 homes to be build across five publicly-owned sites this year.

The sites included brownfield land at Old Oak Common in north west London, the former Connaught barracks in Dover, ex Ministry of Defence land at Northstowe in Cambridgeshire, a former hospital at Lower Graylingwell in Chichester, and a Ministry of Defence property at Daedelus Waterfront in Gosport.

The plan stemmed from an announcement made in December 2014, when former Liberal Democrat chief secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander said the government would pilot a plan to "directly commission, build and even sell homes" in Cambridgeshire, on a former RAF base.

In addition to the directly commissioned construction, the government was also announcing a £1.2bn fund to help developers prepare brownfield land for residential construction.

But shadow housing minister John Healey was immediately critical of the plan, saying the number of new homes to be built were a "drop in the ocean" compared with what was needed.

"If new announcements built new homes, the government would have solved the housing crisis by now", Healey told BBC News.

"In the Autumn Statement a few weeks ago, George Osborne tried to spin his halving of public housing investment as an increase. Now David Cameron is laying on the rhetoric to hide his failure on new homes", Healey added.