"WE are the builders," George Osborne claimed as he laid the foundations for a housing boom, but campaigners have questioned whether the move will create more low cost homes.

The Chancellor announced the largest "affordable" housebuilding programme since the 1970s, with more than 400,000 new homes set to be built across England.

But experts warned that the drive to "turn Generation Rent into Generation Buy" must not leave those who are not home owners without somewhere affordable to rent.

A new three per cent surcharge on stamp duty for buy-to-let properties and second homes will come into effect from April next year.

Ajay Jagota of North-East based sales and lettings firm KIS Group feared it would deter property investment in the region.

“Both the Chancellor and the Governor of the Bank of England have implied that the Buy-to-Let market needs cooling. In London that might be true maybe, but it certainly isn’t the case in the North-East.

“Using national policy to solve a London problem is a potentially damaging for North-East housing."

Mr Osborne's plans include 8,000 specialist homes for older people or those with disabilities. The Government will provide £400m to help housing associations and the private sector build these homes.

The Government will provide £4bn to help housing associations, local authorities or the private sector deliver 135,000 Help to Buy: shared ownership homes by 2020-21.

The Government will also provide £200m to allow 10,000 homes to be available at a lower than market rent, making it easier for tenants to save for a deposit.

The average rental discount will be 20 per cent of the market value. The houses will be sold after five years, with tenants being given first refusal.

And 200,000 new starter homes will help young first-time buyers aged under 40 to buy a home at a 20 per cent discount.

Campbell Robb, Shelter's chief executive, said that in the wake of looming cuts, the Chancellor should recognise that the only way to bring down the benefit bill for the long term is to invest in homes that people on lower incomes can actually afford.

Mr Robb said: "Home ownership schemes like starter homes or shared ownership won't work for everyone, so building more genuinely affordable homes to rent is still absolutely essential. Especially when there are still plans to force councils to sell of large swathes of their social housing stock.

"Our shortage of affordable homes means that thousands of working families depend upon housing benefit to help them cope with sky-high rents."

Many experts have predicted that a lack of supply of homes will continue to force up house prices.

Brian Berry, chief executive of the Federation of Master Builders, said: "‘George the Builder’ will need a new generation of ‘real’ builders to make his vision for housing a reality. We’re already seeing housing developments starting to stall because the cost of hiring skilled tradespeople is threatening to make some sites simply unviable. Unless we see a massive uplift in apprenticeship training in our industry, there won’t be enough pairs of hands to deliver more housing on this scale. That’s why we’re keen for the Government to tread carefully when applying the new proposed Apprenticeship Levy to the construction industry.”