Eddy Shah, the former press tycoon, has set up a housebuilding firm aimed at delivering low-cost sustainable homes.

Shah, best known for pioneering digital technology in the newspaper industry in the eighties, entered the construction arena last November by starting a scheme to develop a holiday village at a site in Wiltshire.

He has now expanded by launching a housebuilder, Green Ladder Homes, and is in negotiation with a local housing authority.

Shah’s prototype eco-homes have reached level four on the Code for Sustainable Homes.

He plans to deliver housing much more cheaply than established housebuilders.

Shah said: “Why force people to live in experimental shoe boxes that only exacerbate many of the social problems councils are faced with, when the question of affordability has already been resolved? No more gimmicks, no more trickery and subterfuge by the ‘I’m alright Jack’ large organisations. It is time that practical ideas formed the base of our affordable-homes society.”

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