Winny Wang/Shanghai Daily news

China's Ministry of Construction will examine how local governments implement their property construction plans, especially on budget homes, China Economic Weekly has said.

Local government officials will be punished for not following property plans or curbing the growth rate of housing prices, the Beijing-based newspaper quoted China’s Ministry of Construction as saying.

It will be the first check on budget houses after the ministry ordered cities to publish their plans on property construction by December 20, 2006.

The small proportion of budget houses can’t solve low-income families’living problems, the report said.

By the first half of last year, 7,100 households were living in budget homes in Shaanxi Province, accounting for 6.5 percent of all qualified households, and in Inner Mongolia, 2,251 out of 230,000 low-income families were living in budget homes.

By the end of last year, 88.3 percent of low-income families in Hohhot couldn’t get a budget home to live in, as well as 92.3 percent in Baotou City.

An official of Sichuan construction department said many areas of the province lack capital to build enough budget houses for its 150,000 low-income families due to the undeveloped economy.

Some provinces are funding cities and counties to develop budget house, the report said.