<p><span>The Conservative party could potentially create 195,000 new housebuilding jobs “for a future generation”, with the housebuilding sector matching the automotive industry in size, according to housing minister Esther McVey.</span></p> <p><span>Speaking at a panel session at the Conservative party conference in Manchester, McVey said that the number of jobs would be possible “if we get it right, if we now become the global standard for safe homes, quality homes, eco homes, technological homes - that could be an industry worth £40 billion – the same size as the automotive industry."</span></p> <p><span>To “look big” at housebuilding and take a different approach to achieving the 300,000 homes target, McVey said the government was exploring modern methods of construction (MMC). She cited other products that had progressed technologically, including cars and mobile phones.</span></p> <p><span>But housing, she said, “has pretty much been the last sector to become industrialised. If we look at mobile phones, they’ve gone from something we communicate with to absolutely having a computer in your pocket”.</span></p> <p><span>MMC offered a similar advancement for housing, she continued. “Let’s build [homes] offsite in a factory. But when we do that, let’s do that to high specifications.” She claimed that building homes with MMC could …