John Prescott has said he will intervene to force local authorities to meet government targets on building new homes.

In a statement to the Commons, the deputy prime minister announced a plan to provide "decent affordable homes for people wherever they live".

In a blunt statement, he admitted past failures by governments of all colours.

"Over the last decade all governments have failed to meet the housing needs of our people," he said.

"We in this House should recognise we've failed to meet the needs of this generation, let alone our children. The situation will get worse unless we take radical action now."

He said demographic changes were pushing up demand for new properties, leaving many people unable to afford to live in the area where they were born.

He said that over 150,000 fewer homes were being built than there were 50 years ago.

"No wonder house prices are rocketing," he said. "We are failing to provide homes for teachers, nurses and other key workers. We are placing our public services under pressure because they cannot get enough skilled staff."

Announcing plans for a "step change" in housing policy, he said better use would have to be made of brownfield sites to develop sustainable communities.

And he admitted that government targets on house building were "simply not being met".

There was a shortfall of around 10,000 houses in London and the South East over the last two years alone.

"We can no longer allow this to continue," said Prescott

The deputy prime minister said local authorities would be compelled to deliver the number of new houses they had been set.

"I am therefore putting local authorities on notice that where they fail to meet the targets I will take action to intervene," he told MPs.

Prescott said four key growth areas in the South East would see a renewed emphasis on delivering "rapid regeneration" and better use of land.

He said the target of building 60 per cent of new homes on brownfield sites had been met, achieving the government's aim eight years early.

Plans for new developments with less than 30 dwellings per hectare would see the deputy prime minister intervene to ensure land was put to best use.

He said the countryside would be protected from the new development.

"We will not tolerate the urban sprawl and we will not concrete over the south east, as some have speculated in the press, or any other region," said the Hull MP.

Prescott also argued that public service workers would be helped with more affordable homes, with the creation of 20,000 new such homes every year.

There would now be increased funding for homes for key workers and families in bed and breakfast accommodation.

In the North of England and the Midlands the problems were different "but just as pressing", said Prescott.

He said problems of negative equity and social exclusion would be tackled in previously announced "pathfinder areas".

A scheme to support development were the costs were more than the market price will also be launched.

"We are building the wrong kind of houses in the wrong places and failing to tackle fully the urban decay associated with it," the deputy prime minister said.

A single housing inspectorate would also be tasked with raising the standards of properties provided by "unscrupulous landlords".

Prescott said his strategy would meet the challenges facing the government in the years ahead.

"This is a strategy for the long term. We know the problems, we have the commitment, we have the resources to make that start," he told the Commons.

"We must recognise in the country and on both sides of this House that we have simply not done enough over the years."

Responding for the Conservatives, Eric Pickles said the plans were "Stalinist".

"There can be no greater tribute to central planning than this housing statement," said Pickles, who slammed the "half thought through attempt" to solve the country's housing crisis.

"This is a crisis entirely of the government's own making," Pickles added.