All types of housing tenures would need to be on ‘firing on all cylinders' for Labour's ambitious target of building 200,000 new homes a year by 2020 to be realised, property experts have advised.

In its response to Sir Michael Lyons' independent review of housing for the Labour Party, the British Property Federation has urged the former Birmingham City Council chief executive to question the scale of the landbanking problem before implementing any policy.

The BPF response urges Sir Michael to investigate where roadblocks to the planning system are actually caused and recommends greater use of compulsory purchase orders would allow local authorities to capture land value in situations where developments are stagnating needlessly.

It is also recommended that the largest regeneration schemes are exempt from the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) with infrastructure contributions negotiated individually with local authorities.

The BPF also suggested that the New Homes Bonus should continue but be diverted to residents and that communities should be given the right to choose how the money is spent – or even distributed locally

‘The current system is not perfect, but reassurance that existing planning guidance is not going to be ripped up and started over again would be welcome, so that we can continue to further improve the framework that we are currently working with,' said Liz Peace, BPF chief executive.

‘Our key focus is land – how to get it released across local authority boundaries, how to ensure brownfield land is viable, and to pose the question whether green belt policy is always being used appropriately,' she added.

‘We need to question whether local council and communities have sufficient incentive to release land, an a need to rekindle the garden city spirit and measures, which did so much to release land in the post-war era,' Ms Peace said.