Housing Minister Yvette Cooper announced that members of the Armed Forces will be given new support to help them buy an affordable home.
For the first time, service personnel and their families currently living in service housing in all regions will be eligible to apply for a shared equity loan to help them onto the housing ladder.
Under an extension of the Government's low-cost homeownership programme, service personnel who qualify could boost their buying power by up to 32.5% with a regular mortgage topped up with a shared equity loan, provided by the Government and one of four private sector lenders.
Currently, a family on a combined income of £40,000 could typically obtain a mortgage of just £160,000 independently. If eligible for shared equity support, they could potentially buy a home valued at around £210,000.
Military personnel are also currently able to buy a newly built home, paying a minimum 25% of the price and a reduced rent on the remaining cost of the home, through the low cost homeownership programme.
The Government is also using the Housing and Regeneration Bill to ensure that service personnel are treated fairly when applying to councils for social housing or homelessness assistance.
Under existing housing legislation, members of the Armed Forces won't have a local connection with the district where they are serving or living. This can put them at a disadvantage, since if you don't have a local connection you may get less priority for social housing or, if you are accepted as homeless, you may be referred to another local authority where you do have a local connection.
Ministers are amending the law so that service personnel will have a local connection with the area which they are stationed or living in. This will put them on an equal footing with civilians.
Matthew Taylor MP published his call for evidence, a questionnaire designed to gather stakeholders' opinions, to aid his review into how land use and planning can better support rural business and deliver affordable housing.
In September, the Prime Minister asked the Liberal Democrat MP to advise and assist the Minister of State for Housing, Yvette Cooper, and the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Hilary Benn, on the application of land use planning policy to support sustainable rural communities.
Within the context of existing protection for the rural environment, the review will look at how planning policy can facilitate the provision of land for greater economic and social sustainability within rural communities. This will include land for enterprise and affordable rural homes.
The review is not seeking to duplicate the work of previous reviews - such as the Affordable Rural Housing Commission - but to build upon this evidence and focus on how planning could better deliver for rural economies and affordable housing at the local level - and to develop a practical action plan to better support and maintain sustainable rural communities through the planning system.
Through the call for evidence, Matthew Taylor is interested in views from a wide range of people and organisations - such as regional and local government, parish councils, housing and planning professionals, social and private housing developers, land owners, rural businesses, rural communities and others with an interest in this work.
Matthew Taylor MP said:
"This is an important opportunity to investigate how the planning system can better support rural communities to be sustainable, inclusive and mixed communities, and set out the action that needs to be taken.
"Having met a series of key stakeholders since September, the next stage of this process is to gather evidence and to better understand how planning policies for rural business and the provision of new affordable housing are working - or not - on the ground at the local level. This is a topic which attracts much opinion and anecdote, but I want to build a strong evidence base to inform my review.
"I am particularly interested in hearing more about real life examples, both of local good practice which could have the potential to be replicated elsewhere, and detailed examples of barriers or blockages which are preventing progress and need to be overcome. And I am keen to hear specific proposals for improvement from those at the sharp end.
"I look forward to hearing the views of people with an interest in this work, including those involved in planning, housing, and economic development for rural areas, and of course, those living in rural communities themselves."