Hundreds of timber-based homes costing less than £60,000 each could be built across Bradford to tackle the affordable housing crisis.

Details of the radical scheme - drawn up by a Shipley-based housing group - will be officially unveiled at a Government conference on sustainable communities next week.

It will be a direct response to Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott's challenge, being laid down to developers today, to build homes which cost less than £60,000.

That target was being announced as part of Mr Prescott's five-year housing plan which, as well as plans for 60,000 new starter homes, will for the first time allow housing association tenants to buy a stake in their homes until they can eventually afford to buy them outright.

The Bradford project is being pioneered by community investment organisation Accent, formerly the Bradford & Northern Housing Association.

Hundreds of the timber-based homes will be built mainly on brown field sites in Bradford and on former industrial areas along the Aire Valley. It is expected thousands more will be built nationwide.

Accent has already signed a collaboration deal with Canadian affordable housing expert Dr Avi Friedman.

And this week, the group will sign an agreement with the Quebec government to import Canadian timber for their construction.

Accent's marketing manager Ian Campbell said a number of sites across the district were being identified as possible locations for the new homes but all developments depended on planning permission.

"We would expect to have some show homes sooner rather than later and we'll have some houses finally constructed before the end of the year," said Mr Campbell.

"The whole point is they don't take as long to build as normal homes. They don't cost as much and they are environmentally friendly."

Last week, the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority unveiled its plans for tackling the lack of affordable housing in that area by backing a scheme to restrict the sale of new homes to local residents.

And the scale of the problem facing first time buyers in parts of the district was underlined at the weekend when Ilkley was named as the seventh most expensive town in the country for buying a starter home.

The study by leading mortgage lender The Halifax said the cost of starter homes in Ilkley were as high as 11 times the average first-time buyer's wage of £23,731.

The proposed houses in the Bradford area will be known as Accent Homes and were first developed by Dr Friedman in Montreal, Canada.

Regarded as the world's most influential thinker on innovative housing, over the past 18 years he has developed three housing prototypes - the Grow Home, the Next Home and La Casa a la Carta.

More than 10,000 of the homes have been built across North America. In 2000, an international design magazine included him in its list of the ten people most likely to change the way we live.

Mr Campbell said the homes were very flexible and could be tailored to meet individual requirements. A home built for a single person could later be expanded and adapted for families with children.

The timber-based homes will be offered both for sale and for rent. Mr Campbell said Accent would encourage the participation of local housing associations.

"If you need to get houses up quickly, this is ideal," he added. "What we are is a Bradford company delivering a national solution.

"We certainly think this can be done. We're not just delivering on price. And the low price doesn't mean the houses will be cheap and cheerful. They are a quality product."

Helen King, a rural housing enabler with the Yorkshire Rural Community Council, based in Ilkley, said she believed there was a clearly defined need for such homes.

"House prices are so high they are pushing so many people out of the market," she said. "There's a need for affordable housing, especially in brown field sites. They should go to local people rather than outsiders.

"What's emerging is that younger people want to get into the housing market but can't get on the first rung of the ladder. There are also older people who want to downshift to smaller accommodation."

Councillor Martin Smith, (Con Ilkley) said there was a shortage of development land in the town and few people favoured encroaching on to the green belt. He cautiously welcomed Accent's plan.

"I'm particularly concerned that we've had timber-framed schools which seem to go up in flames fairly regularly," he said. "I'd be concerned about the safety and the durability of these properties. Are we building prefabs of the 1960s again or are we building permanent homes?"

Accent, originally set up as a housing association in 1966, is involved in other high profile projects. It is at the forefront of a £50 million plan to provide health facilities in the Manningham area as part of the Local Improvement Finance Trust (LIFT).

The organisation is also involved in training youngsters in building skills under its Youthbuild scheme. Accent said that some of those could be used to build the new homes.