Labour is to provide more details today about their commitment to establish the next generation of new towns to help end the housing crisis.

The party's shadow housing secretary Angela Rayner will speak at the UK Real Estate Investment and Infrastructure Forum in Leeds to expand on a plan first announced in October.

Labour has pledged to build 1.5 million homes during a first term in office.

Rayner will tell the conference that a new towns taskforce of independent experts would be appointed to select possible sites.

Some of the factors that will be considered when selecting sites include residents' views, demand for housing, and the prospect of jobs and transport infrastructure.

Rayner said the new towns will have to consist of at least 40% ‘affordable' properties.

The process would also be opened to bidding from councils.

Rayner will tell the conference: ‘Developers who deliver on their obligations to build high-quality, well-designed and sustainable affordable housing, with green spaces and transport links and schools and GPs' surgeries nearby, will experience a new dawn under Labour.

‘But those who have wriggled out of their responsibilities for too long will be robustly held to account.

‘Labour's towns of the future will be built on the foundations of our past.

'The post-war period taught us that when the Government plays a strategic role in housebuilding, we can turbo-charge growth to the benefit of working people across Britain.'