Labour has vowed to give first time buyers priority for new housing and raise council tax on empty properties if it takes power in May.

Launching his party’s housing plans in Stockton, Labour leader Ed Miliband will commit to hand people who have been living in a region for over three years but do not own a home ‘first call’ on as much as half of the new residences built locally.

With just over a week to go until the General Election, Labour has said it would raise taxes paid by foreign buyers and council tax for empty homes in a bid to help local buyers ‘get a look in’.

The party said it would also enact ‘use it or lose it’ powers ensuring developers build on land rather than ‘hoarding’ it through a right to levy council tax on sites that remain undeveloped.

Labour said it would cut stamp duty to zero for first time buyers of properties worth up to £300,000 while capping rents at inflation and bringing in secure three-year tenancies where desired.

Miliband said his party would begin construction on one million new homes by 2020, delivering 200,000 newly built residences every year.

‘There’s nothing more British than the dream of home ownership, starting out in a place of your own. But for so many young people today that dream is fading with more people than ever renting when they want to buy, new properties being snapped up before local people get a look-in, young families wondering if this country will ever work for them. That is the condition of Britain today, a modern housing crisis which only a Labour government will tackle,’ he will say.

However chief executive at the National Housing Federation, David Orr, raised ‘concerns’ that cutting stamp duty could raise demand on homes and push up prices and said the party’s house building target ‘doesn’t go far enough’.

Ed Balls, Labour’s shadow chancellor, said: ‘A Labour Treasury after the election will tackle the housing crisis and back young people aspiring to buy their own home.’