John Elliott, managing director of Millwood Homes, right, explains why now is the right time to start building a recovery.

Housebuilding is vital to our recovery as a nation since construction is one of the best ways to stimulate economic activity - each £1 spent generates a total of £2.84 in economic activity.

There are also huge environmental benefits, today's new homes are being built to increasingly high standards of energy efficiency that will help tackle climate change and reduce energy bills.

New homes generate on average 60 per cent less CO2 than older homes and are becoming ever more energy efficient. From 2016 onwards, new homes will achieve a world-leading zero carbon standard of energy performance.

The important thing to remember is that housebuilding is a massive home-grown British industry and, unlike many other sectors, there is only a minimal requirement for imports in all construction-related industries. Home building and construction imports less than eight per cent of its supply, maximising benefit for the UK.

The housebuilding industry is responsible for around three per cent of the UK's GDP and is incredibly important for employment and industry, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs. Every new home built provides 1.5 direct full-time jobs, plus up to four times that many in the supply chain.

The housing and construction industry employs some three million people - that's eight per cent of UK employment - providing vital apprenticeships for those entering the jobs market.

The construction, sale and servicing of a new home also provides up to six full-time jobs indirectly in the supply chain, the professions and in sectors such as the furniture and white goods industries.

Since the start of 2011, we have received offers on every new home we have available, which just goes to show that people are now seriously looking to buy again.

However, we are facing a national shortage of new homes and it has been estimated that we now have a shortfall of supply approaching one million. Official projections have shown the need for an additional 232,000 homes in England a year just to meet growth in the number of households.

These figures are worrying, but Millwood is committed to improving the situation with a number of new developments in the pipeline. For more information, please visit the website at http://www.mdh.uk.com/