Prime Minister David Cameron is set to announce £1.2bn of funding to build up to 30,000 starter homes on underused brownfield land over the next five years.

The properties will be accompanied by a further 30,000 market homes and constructed on 500 new sites by 2020.

The government will also announce plans to directly commission the building of homes on publicly owned land.

The first wave of up to 13,000 homes will see construction start on four sites outside of London, up to 40% of which will be affordable starter homes. This approach will also be used at the Old Oak Common site in north west London.

David Cameron said: “The government was elected to deliver security and opportunity – whatever stage of life you’re at.

“Nothing is more important to achieving that than ensuring hard-working people can buy affordable homes.

“Today’s package signals a huge shift in government policy.

“Nothing like this has been done on this scale in three decades - government rolling its sleeves up and directly getting homes built.”

P2P platform LendInvest said the news will go some way to helping small housebuilders, but cautioned that their ability to access finance remains an issue.

Christian Faes, CEO at LendInvest said: "This is great news for small-scale developers around the country for whom getting access to land is a major hurdle to growing their businesses.

“Recent history shows that putting the onus on big housebuilders to solve the housing problem doesn't work.

“The government now must ensure that these developers receive the critical access to finance that they need to put the land to work.

“For many bank lenders, small scale development capital is still too expensive for them to lend, opening the door for more alternative sources of funding."

The announcement comes as part of the government’s plan to create 200,000 homes over the next five years.

The government-commissioned houses will be built on brownfield sites in Dover, Cambridgeshire, Chichester, Gosport and north west London.