Thousands of new homes will be build following a range of government measures announced this week to boost the construction industry and help growth.

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said these new measures would support locally-led efforts to get the country building, building on the momentum gathered since 2010 which has seen house building levels rise to a 7-year high.

The government also announced measures that will provide hundreds of thousands of new affordable homes between 2015 and 2020 – the fastest rate of affordable house building in 2 decades.

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said: “We’ve seen how getting the country building has been key to our long term economic plan – helping hard-working people become homeowners and creating thousands of construction jobs.

“Taken together with our plans for a new programme of affordable house building, these measures could deliver over 200,000 new homes across the country.”

Housing Minister Brandon Lewis said: “Since 2010 we’ve pulled out all the stops and got the country building, delivering the highest levels of house building for 7 years.

“And in doing this, we’ll support the construction industry – a key part of our growing economy – long into the future by creating thousands of new jobs.”

Some of the other announcements include:

• a locally-led garden town at Bicester, backed by the council and local MP, which will provide up to 13,000 new homes

• the provision of 10,000 new homes on surplus public sector land at Northstowe in Cambridgeshire

• a new target to release enough formerly-used surplus public sector land for 150,000 new homes between 2015 and 2020

• government support to provide 11,000 new homes at Barking Riverside in East London, and 7,500 new homes as part of the redevelopment of Brent Cross