<p>The government has announced the first wave of 30 local authority partnerships to build new starter homes backed by the £1.2 billion Starter Homes Land Fund.</p> <p>The homes will be built on brownfield sites across the country, housing minister Gavin Barwell confirmed.</p> <p>The new homes will be built exclusively for first time buyers aged between 23 and 40 years old at a discount of at least 20% below market value.</p> <p>Construction will begin on the first schemes later this year with the first homes delivered in 2018.</p> <p>Housing minister Gavin Barwell said: “This government is committed to building starter homes to help young first time buyers get on the housing ladder.</p> <p>“This first wave of partnerships shows the strong local interest to build thousands of starter homes on hundreds of brownfield sites in the coming years. One in three councils has expressed an interest to work with us so far.”</p> <p>The Starter Homes Land Fund was set up in April 2016 to support the acquisition, remediation and de-risking of suitable land for starter home developments.</p> <p>Each local authority partnership will work with the Homes and Communities Agency to identify and take forward further land opportunities for the fund.</p> <p>In addition, …