The Labour party wants to see 200,000 new homes built every year by the end of the decade, Ed Miliband said.

He said the "worst housing shortage for a generation" was making it hard for people to get onto the property ladder, and that more must be done to ensure Britain has affordable homes.

The Labour leader added that his party will give new powers to councils if they win the next general election, including the power to override "home-blocking" neighbouring councils and "land-hoarding developers", in a bid to drive up the number of new residential developments.

Mr Miliband said: "A Labour government would give a 'right to grow' to councils so that they can't simply be blocked all the time by neighbouring councils, but can actually expand.

"A Labour government is determined to reach the objective of building 200,000 homes a year by 2020 so that we can meet the needs of so many people across the country who find they can't afford a home to rent or to buy."

A Housing Commission is due to examine the Labour party's plans in detail. The commission, led by former BBC Trust chairman Sir Michael Lyons, was announced at Labour's conference in September.

Four Labour-controlled local authorities - Stevenage, Oxford, Luton and York - are earmarked to become the first 'Right to Grow' councils, with the potential to build 40,000 new homes in each area.

The Housing Commission will focus on the details of the scheme but also try to identify sites for new developments that might be underwritten by Government guarantees.

It has also been tasked with finding a way to simplify the rules relating to the Housing Revenue Account. This could give councils more powers to decide how to spend public money, and might improve the way communities profit from the granting of planning permissions.    

Mr Miliband would not be drawn on whether Labour plans to make any changes to home buying taxation. However, he argued that properties would become cheaper if there was a rise in the supply of homes.

He also criticised the “profits for our four biggest housing developers [which] are going through the roof. But there are large amounts of land - enough to build more than a million homes - earmarked for houses which have not been built.”

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