Minister of state for housing and planning Brandon Lewis has revealed government plans for three new deals that will deliver a total of 4,000 new homes in London.

“We need more homes in London: no-one can dispute that,” said Lewis speaking at the London Real Estate Forum in Berkeley Square this morning. He added that 1,000 of the homes would be build-to-rent properties, and said this was the first time the government was investing directly in the private rental sector.

The minister also rejected claims that the coalition government’s Help to Buy scheme for first-time buyers had had a detrimental effect on housing supply. “It has given access to the market to people that otherwise would simply not have it”, he said.

Lewis backed the mayor of London Boris Johnson, who he said had delivered 94,000 of the 100,000 new homes he said he would when he arrived in office in 2010. “We will continue to fund and support the mayor to deliver the homes London needs to maintain its status as a superior city,” he said.

He also spoke of the need to regenerate and rebuild London’s inner-city estates, in which he said the government would invest £150m. Lewis spoke of the Packington estate in Islington and City Mills in Hackney as examples of successful developments.