Chancellor Philip Hammond used the annual budget to say that the funding would be used to boost the supply of skills, resources and land needed to increase the number of new homes built each year, from the current level of 217,000.

"Solving this challenge will require money, planning reform and intervention," he told parliament. "So today we set out an ambitious plan to tackle the housing challenge."

(Reporting by Kate Holton; editing by Costas Pitas)

Stocks treated in this article : Persimmon, Taylor Wimpey, Berkeley, Barratt Developments