We have not built enough homes in this country for generations, which has left too many families facing unaffordable rents or struggling to save up for their first deposit. If we do not put this right, we will be unable to extend the promise of a decent home, let alone home ownership, to the millions who deserve it. So if we are elected on 8 June, my government will fix the dysfunctional housing market so that homes are more affordable and ordinary working people have the security they need to plan for the future.

We will deliver on our commitment to build a million homes by 2020, and we will build another half a million by the end of the parliament in 2022. This will slow the rise in housing costs so more ordinary working families can afford to buy a home. To achieve that, we will deliver on our existing reforms to free up more land for homes in the right places, speed up building rates and give councils powers to step in when developers are not using planning permissions. We will support high-quality, high-density housing to ensure that those homes are the kind of houses that people want to live in, such as terraced streets, mansion blocks and mews houses.

But we will go much further, by using the power of housing associations and councils to build many more high-quality affordable homes. To build a new generation of social housing, ambitious councils and housing associations will be given funding, support and new powers to deliver high-quality fixed-term council homes linked to a new Right to Buy for social tenants. The proceeds will be recycled into building more homes, refreshing the stock of social housing.

And we will help many more people get on the housing ladder and help them when they are there. Since 2010, over 362,000 households have been able to buy a property through government-backed schemes like Help to Buy and the reinvigorated Right to Buy, and we will continue to help people through these schemes. We will tackle unfair practices in leaseholds, such as escalating ground rents. We know that buying a leasehold house can be more expensive than a freehold house in the long run, particularly when ground rents can increase significantly over the lease period. So we will consult on a range of measures to tackle unfair and unreasonable abuses of leasehold.

These ambitious policies will mean more and better homes in all parts of the country, as part of my plan to build a stronger Britain.