Prime Minister Tony Blair has vowed to "take the heat" in order to get more of Oxford's young on the property ladder.

In an exclusive interview with the Oxford Mail, Mr Blair said his Government had to make "bold decisions" about housebuilding to ease the crisis.

Mr Blair said: "It's really tough for young couples at the moment - the economy is growing very strongly and people can't get on the housing ladder.

"We have got to look at how we free up more brownfield sites and how we encourage not just the development of one and two-bedroom flats, which is very often what people go for, but affordable homes.

"I think it will get better if we take some pretty bold decisions .

"I keep going on about the need to build more homes and I get opposed by the Tories and green groups who say that's the wrong thing to do, but that's all very well unless you are a young person trying to buy a home, so we are going to have to take some political heat on this."

If Oxford City Council were granted unitary status - thus taking control of major departments from the county council - it would almost certainly push for an urban extension, possibly on Green Belt land south of Grenoble Road.

City planners claimed they have run out of brownfield sites and building on the edge of the city is the only solution.

Mr Blair is widely expected to quit Downing Street within the next year as speculation mounts as to the identity of his successor.

But in East Oxford, where former cabinet colleague Andrew Smith remains MP, Mr Blair predicted he would enjoy an increased share of the vote at the next election - despite the former work and pensions secretary losing the lion's share of a 10,000 majority at last year's polls.

Mr Blair said: "Andrew is a very good constituency MP and he is dedicated. What happened during the election in certain areas our majority went up, in certain areas it was slashed.

"There was a huge scare around tuition fees, Iraq war was a factor but I think that will settle down.

"I would be surprised if I didn't see his (Smith's) majority go up significantly in the next election. When you are in a third term it's always tougher.

"The trouble with David Cameron's Tories is they think it is about PR and not policy - and in the end it will be about policy, and at the moment they don't get put under pressure."

And on the day protesters took over Didcot Power Station, he predicted a global consensus on global warming. "You can't shut down coal-fired power stations until you have the alternatives in place, " he said.

However, Mr Blair who was visiting Diamond Light Source on the Harwell Business Park, refused to be drawn on who he wanted to succeed him as Labour leader.