PM pledges three million new homes

He announced that there would be three housing Bills in the next parliamentary session, dominating his first legislative programme as Prime Minister.

In a break with tradition, Mr Brown set out his legislative plans in a Commons statement ahead of the Queen's Speech on November 6, paving the way for a series of region-by-region public consultations before the programme is finalised.

In all, he said he there would be a total of 23 Bills - underlining his determination to be seen to be pressing ahead with his priorities of housing, education and the National Health Service. However his statement was dismissed by Tory leader David Cameron, who said that most of the measures had been announced before.

Mr Brown, who has pledged to tackle the shortage of affordable homes, said that he was raising the annual housebuilding target for England from 200,000 to 240,000 new homes a year by 2016 while releasing 550 brownfield sites on public land for development. "Putting affordable housing within the reach not just of the few but the many is vital both to meeting individual aspirations and a better future for our country," he told the House.

He said that the legislative programme would include a Housing Bill bringing together English Partnerships and the Housing Corporation to form a new agency with responsibility for opening up more surplus public land for home-building.

Alongside it, there will be a Planning Bill to implement the findings of two recent reports to speed up the approval of major infrastructure projects and streamline the planning process.

A third Bill - the Planning Gain Supplement Bill - is also being drawn up to ensure a share of the profits made on the sale of land for development goes to local authorities to help finance the infrastructure, such as transport.

However Mr Brown said that he was prepared to defer legislation if the authorities and developers could come up with their own alternative proposals before the Pre-Budget Report in November. Critics have warned in the past that it could slow down the planning process and reduce the supply of land available for development.

In the meantime, Chancellor Alistair Darling is to consult on a new regime to help mortgage lenders finance "more affordable" fixed-rate mortgages over 20 to 25 years by using so-called covered bonds to back the deals.