The government's "Get Britain Building Fund" will see house builders competing for part of the £400m fund to build 90,000 new homes on stalled sites, with sites that are ready to start contributing a further 43,000 homes. The sites will need to meet certain criteria including a commitment to affordable homes.
This initiative will begin in July and aims to lead to 16,000 new homes being built, providing work for 32,000 people.
It is hoped that about 450,000 mainly affordable homes will be built by 2015, many of them on publicly-owned brownfield sites.
Other parts of the strategy include empty properties being brought back into residential use and new providers being encouraged to enter the social housing market.
The government said the strategy would "tackle the housing shortage, boost the economy, create jobs and give people the opportunity to get on the housing ladder".
Ed Miliband said it was
"too little, too late" and did not compensate for earlier cuts to housing budgets. Putting back just 10% of the £4bn David Cameron cut from housing investment last year will convince no-one he is serious about getting growth back into the economy."
The opposition have also urged ministers to levy a £2bn tax on bank bonuses to pay for 25,000 new homes and 100,000 new construction jobs for young people, as part of their five-point plan for boosting growth.
Just 121,200 new homes were made available in 2010-11, half of what ministers say are needed.
