Housing was a major focus in chancellor George Osborne’s autumn statement today, with the additional funding to unlock residential developments expected to help some major schemes, including in Leeds and Manchester.

Rundown urban housing estates will also be targeted with regeneration plans and the Housing Revenue Account borrowing limit will be raised by £300m, allowing councils to borrow more to fund housing schemes.

Mr Osborne also announced that challenger banks Aldermore and Virgin were expected to join the Help to Buy scheme this month. And he expressed delight that residential construction was now growing at its fastest rate for a decade.

“If we want more people to own a home we have to build more homes and the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) is absolutely right today to draw attention to the weakness in housing supply in this country,” said Mr Osborne.

Other announcements include freezing the rate of fuel duty (a 2% rise had been planned in April), funding an additional 20,000 apprenticeships in the next two years and expanding business start-up loans – helping 50,000 more people start their own business.

Business rate relief will be extended for another year and rules relaxed for companies taking on additional premises. Business rates will be capped at 2% rather than linked to RPI inflation and payments can now be paid in monthly instalments.

Employers received a boost by news that National Insurance contributions were being removed for under-21s. Headline economic figures released today through the OBR include a 2013-14 growth prediction of 1.4% (revised upwards from 0.6% earlier this year) and 2.4% in 2014-2015.

The chancellor confirmed the UK economy was growing faster than any other major economy, while the Eurozone as a whole was predicted to shrink by 0.4% in the current year.

UK sovereign debt was also revised downwards and is now expected to be 6.8% of GDP in 2013, with a small surplus predicted by 2018-19. Government departments will cut budgets by £3bn in the next three years, but education and the NHS will be exempt.