David Cameron makes his third visit to the region in as many months today to deliver a speech in Essex outlining plans to double the number of homes for first time buyers.

The Prime Minister will unveil the Conservatives’ final election manifesto theme – “a Britain where everyone works hard can have a home of their own”.

Mr Cameron, who has already visited Ipswich and Felixstowe this year, will pledge to double the number of cut-price starter homes delivered by 2020 to 200,000, if re-elected in May.

During the Essex visit, he will say: “There is a particular kind of security that comes with having a home. Too many people have been denied that security.

“The young people in their 20s and 30s still living with their parents, desperately saving for their own place.

“The couple who want a child but can’t afford to upsize – even though they both have full-on, full-time jobs. It shouldn’t be this way.

“Our goal is a Britain where everyone who works hard can have a home of their own.”

The homes will only be available to first-time buyers under 40 and their price will be capped to £250,000 outside London – or £450,000 in the capital.

“Young people are getting a job, working for years, saving away but still unable to buy - stuck living with their parents, sometimes into their 30s,” Mr Cameron will say.

“We want to build a country that rewards those who work hard and do the right thing.”

Developers including Barratt and Taylor Wimpey are reported to have signed up to the scheme, which will see planning red tape cut for starter homes so they can be built for 20% less than the usual price.

Mr Cameron will say the homes will not be “rabbit hutches or shoe boxes but decent, well-built homes with gardens – places to start and raise a family”.

East Anglia is seen as an important part of the election battle-ground for the Conservatives. While the party holds a strong majority in Essex and Suffolk, their dominance has been threatened by a number of recent upsets.

Former Tory and Clacton MP Douglas Carswell defected to UKIP last year and won the party’s first Parliamentary seat in a by-election.

- Young people can register to buy one of the new starter homes online at www.starter-home.co.uk