ERIC Pickles vowed to fight a Labour scheme to kick-start housebuilding – claiming Ed Miliband planned to “confiscate private land”.

The Labour leader was praised by housing leaders when he pledged to give councils “use it or lose it” powers, slapping fees on developers hoarding land with planning permission.

They would also enjoy beefed-up compulsory purchase powers to grab back land that has lain empty for years - despite having been approved for badly-needed homes.

Earlier this year, The Northern Echo revealed that more than 6,000 homes across the North-East and North Yorkshire have approval, yet work has not started.

That included homes in County Durham (1,301), Stockton-on-Tees (871), Sunderland (843), Redcar and Cleveland (667), Ryedale (237) and in Scarborough (523).

The idea of getting tough on “land banking” has also won backing from Boris Johnson, the Conservative Mayor of London.

But, speaking the Conservative conference, the Local Government Secretary said Labour would “build nothing but resentment”.

Mr Pickles said: “Take Ed Miliband’s latest plan? To confiscate private land and build over the Green Belt.

“Resurrected eco towns - the zombie policy that will not die. It’s the same old Labour.”

Mr Pickles insisted his department was already reversing Labour’s decline in housebuilding, saying: “We have built over 150,000 new affordable homes since the election, with more to come.”

And he repeated his promise to end punishing parking charges by councils, to give “hardworking people to pop into the local shop to buy a newspaper or a pint of milk”.

But there was no mention of looming extra cuts to local council funding – which the Tory-led Local Government Association has warned will be 15 per cent, in 2015.