Chancellor Gordon Brown has announced plans to bring forward greater numbers of state-owned sites for housing, as the government is still hoping to see housebuilding rates up to 200,000 homes this year. English Partnerships’ register of surplus government land currently lists 700 mainly former NHS or Ministry of Defence sites, totalling 3,600ha. Government is planning to allocate a number of these for housing, including the winning low-cost home designs arising from the Design for Manufacture, or “£60,000” house competition. EP has already acquired 96 NHS sites for the purpose. Linden Homes chief executive Philip Davies commented: "The news today that up to a further 700 government sites are to be released for development, encourages me to believe that there is now some joined up thinking between the Treasury and the ODPM. "While I welcome the Chancellor's move to give 100,000 first time buyers a leg up onto the housing ladder through a shared equity scheme, it is crucial that the country's dire housing shortage is addressed." The announcements form part of the government’s new policy designed to boost the level of first time buyers, which hit an all-time low of 29% of buyers in 2004, compared with 55% in 1994. …