Miliband told delegates at the Labour Party conference yesterday that, with nine million people in the country renting a home and wanting to buy, "we don't just have a cost of living crisis, we have a housing crisis too". He warned that, if the current rate of house building continues, the country will have two million too few homes by 2020.
He set out plans by Labour to target private developers which hoard land and said that such developers will be sent a "very clear" message to "either use the land or lose the land".
The Party will identify new towns and garden cities and local authorities will be given a "right to grow", including where neighbouring authorities object to such plans.
The increase in house building and growth would become the responsibility of a "rebuilding Britain commission", to be led by BBC Trust chair Sir Michael Lyons, which would work with councils to identify sites for growth and prepare a legislative framework.
Shadow communities secretary Hilary Benn told the conference that Labour would make sure local authorities get the "powers and incentives they need to acquire land, put in the infrastructure and build". This would include the powers to ensure land is brought forward for housing, he said.
"When communities have given planning permission they should be able to say to developers: 'we've given you the go-ahead, so please get on and build the homes you said you would.
And if you don't then we'll charge you and, if you still don't, we'll sell the land on to someone else who will'," Benn said.
Confederation of British Industry director John Cridland said in a statement that the commitment to building 200,000 homes a year was a "great ambition" but warned that to achieve it, "we need house builders on board, not criticised for holding on to land when it's not viable to build on it".
