BRITAIN: A massive sell-off of low-rent housing was yesterday placed at the heart of the Tory Party's efforts to revitalise their fortunes.
Housing associations would be forced to sell homes at knock-down prices under the scheme unveiled at the party's conference in Bournemouth.
It extends council tenants' right-to-buy which created the 1980s home ownership revolution when it was introduced by Margaret Thatcher. Housing Associations immediately attacked the proposal, which Labour branded a "reheated Thatcherite" policy.
It came after party leader Mr Iain Duncan Smith defended the way he was "fleshing out" the party's new public services agenda. However, his words did not head off criticism from senior Tories Mr Norman Tebbit and Ms Ann Widdecombe that the party was too concerned with image.
Mr David Davis, deposed party chairman and Mr Duncan Smith's former leadership rival, announced the plan to extend right-to-buy.
Mr Davis, who now shadows Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, conceded that the social housing stock would fall.
However, by building new homes with the profits the number actually available to new tenants would rise, he said.
It would also end the "lottery" system that offered the opportunity of home ownership to some on low incomes but not all, he said.
"A million residents of housing associations have no right-to-buy," he said.
"If they get a council house they get a right-to-buy. If they get a housing association home they are denied that right-to-buy."
The National Housing Federation, which represents English associations, warned the stock of affordable homes must not be cut.
The proposals went against Tory claims that they would free the voluntary sector from Government interference, said deputy chief executive Mr James Tickell.
Lord Rooker, Labour's housing minister, branded the move "extremely damaging".
"Privatisation of housing association stock is not an answer to the widespread need for more affordable housing," he said.
Current chairman Ms Theresa May's uncompromising opening address drew criticism from Lord Tebbit.
The Tory grandee dismissed her warning that the Tories had allowed themselves to become seen as "the nasty party".
He also rejected her claim that the small percentage of women Tory MPs was a "travesty" - arguing that as a rule politics was not a "womanly" environment.
His remarks echoed ex-Tory minister Ms Widdecombe's earlier warning that the party must not try improving its electoral prospects by developing a more user-friendly image.
The party had to focus on the issues preoccupying the electorate rather than "squabbling amongst ourselves about what we look like".
Conservatives are committed to ending the climate where victims of domestic violence suffer in silence, the shadow minister for women pledged yesterday.
Dubbing domestic violence one of society's "most hidden and prevalent" problems, Ms Caroline Spelman said Conservatives would launch a campaign to help its victims later this year. She noted that one in four women had suffered violence in the home. - (PA)