ED MILIBAND today tells the Daily Echo he has a plan to win over opposition and to build the new homes that Hampshire badly needs.

In an interview just days before Thursday’s election, the Labour leader also promised “fair funding” to help councils hit hard by cuts, such as Southampton – but gave no details.

And he pledged to “get money flowing within months” to ease problems in the NHS, in particular to tackle anger over long waits to see GPs.

The number of new homes – in particular, affordable homes – being built in Hampshire has been falling, despite inadequate building under the last Labour Government.

Mr Miliband said he understood the “resentment” of local people when new properties were built only to be snapped up by outsiders, perhaps buy-to-let landlords.

Under Labour’s plans, councils in areas short of homes, such as Hampshire, will be able to designate “housing growth areas” where they can fast-track development.

And – to ensure the support of the community – people who have lived locally would have two months to buy the properties before they are put up for sale more widely.

Asked if he could “win over people” to the need for extra housing, Mr Miliband replied: “Our plan will do that. When planning permission is granted, at least 50 per cent of the homes in an area can be set aside for local people who have been living in the area for three years.”

Labour has dismayed cash-starved local government leaders by pledging a further £500m of savings if it wins power, to keep the nation’s budget deficit falling.

Asked about threatened council budgets, Mr Miliband said: “I can promise fair funding. We will get a review going within months.”

However, he was cautious, saying: “I’m not, at the moment, going to pluck a figure or a formula out of the air.”

On problems in the NHS, Mr Miliband vowed: “So many people have got this issue of having to wait a week or more to see a GP.

“We will get on with having a mansion tax on the most expensive homes above £2m, cracking down on tax avoidance by the hedge funds and money from the tobacco companies.”

Responding to Mr Miliband’s housing promises, Conservative Southampton Test candidate Jeremy Moulton said: “The way to get more houses built is to get the city’s estate regeneration programme off the ground, which Labour locally have thrown a spanner in the works of.

“His approach now is to control everything and it genuinely doesn’t work.

“We are committing to putting £8 billion into the NHS, which Labour are not doing. We are the party putting spending on the NHS at the forefront and Labour are not – it does require investment, we do need more GPs and I’m delighted that Southampton will already be getting more funding for this thanks to the Conservatives.”

UKIP Romsey and Southampton North candidate Sandra James said her party would push for more development on brownfield sites, saying: “Labour can say what they want but they’ve got to have it funded by some capacity, and that’s the issue.

“One of the critical issues is supply and demand, and the amount of people who come into our country and need housing.

“Labour do not want any change in terms of coming out of the EU and are not giving people a right to vote on it, and when you have that situation the supply and demand for housing remains pretty intense and hard to solve.”

Green Southampton Itchen candidate John Spottiswoode said his party would look to expand walk-in centres to initially help ease demand on GPs and A&E, and then have a longer-term push to boost GP numbers.

On housing, he said: “The key thing for the Greens is social housing, because there are 1.8 million people on the waiting list so we are saying we would build 500,000 homes by 2020, the idea would be that the councils would be in charge because we have lost a lot of council housing.”