Housing activists say Tory plans to extend the Right to Buy will “only make matters worse”.

Prime Minister David Cameron unveiled plans last week to extend Margaret Thatcher’s Right to Buy policy to 1.3 million housing association tenants, describing the Tories as “the real party of working people”.

But with 20,000 people on the waiting list for council housing in Brighton and Hove, a campaigner said the latest announcement was “crazy”.

David Gibson, of the Living Wage Campaign, said: “The truth is since Cameron revamped the Right to Buy 26,000 council homes have been sold and only 3,000 have been built across the country. Losing council housing makes it worse for the 20,000 people on the waiting list in Brighton and Hove.

“Doing this for housing associations can only make matters worse.”

He added: “We won't solve the housing crisis till we abolish the Right to Buy. Public funds go towards building social housing, then more funds subsidise the selling through the Right to Buy and then often even more funds pay the benefits to private landlords that end up owning the ex-social houses. It’s a crazy system."

Mr Cameron said if the Tories were returned to power they would double the existing free childcare provision for three and four-year-olds, saving parents £5,000 a year.

A Conservative government would also legislate to ensure no-one on the minimum wage would pay income tax – automatically uprating personal allowances in line with increases to the basic rate of pay.

Mr Cameron said: “We are on the brink of something special in our country. These past five years have been a critical period.

“We have drawn on all the resources of our nation to turn a great recession into a great recovery.

“The next five years are about turning the good news in our economy into a good life for you and your family.”

But Labour leader Ed Miliband said the Right to Buy offer would not work.

He added: "The reality about the Conservative Party is that they are the party not of working people.

“First, last and always they are the party of the richest in our society and that is absolutely the case with what they are saying today.”

Background

MARGARET Thatcher’s Housing Act (1980) enabled council tenants to buy their homes at a large discount.

It was criticised as money made was not poured into renewing council house stock. After 1990, most local councils were only allowed to spend 25% of such receipts on building houses.

Since 2010, a decade-long decline in council house sales has been reversed.

This was due to the government's decision to increase the maximum discount available to tenants to £75,000 and cut the qualifying period to three years’ residence in a property.