TENANTS were warned not to be hoodwinked yesterday by Tory privatisation junkies said to be plotting to dish out thousands of freebie taxpayer-funded homes in an election ploy.

Defend Council Housing chairwoman Eileen Short accused the “Cabinet of landlords” of planning the desperate giveaway to bribe voters — but advised people not to fall for it.

Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith is said to want the manifesto pledge to “gift” social tenants in England their house after a year in work.

Anyone who took up the deal would see their housing benefit stopped and would have to pay the state 35 per cent of any sale price if it was flogged within three years, the Times reported yesterday.

After that the sales “tax” would reduce on a sliding scale.

News of the Tory plot comes two weeks after Welsh Labour proposed to scrap the sell-off of discounted homes if it wins next year.
Scotland plans to do so by 2017.

But since 2010 the Tories have massively increased the discount for English tenants wanting to buy their council home.

A huge new acceleration via the freebie homes plan is said to be one of several being mooted by the Tories in search of an “eye-catching” plan.

A separate proposal could see tenants’ right to buy their homes at huge discounts extended to 2.5 million housing associations.

Ms Short said it was a suspicious step at a time when the land on which estates are built is being eyed up by private developers with Conservative blessing.

“These are the same people they’ve been hammering with the bedroom tax,” she said.

“They treat us like we’re stupid. They can throw us sweeties and we’ll all fall for it.

“These people lie to us. They are seeing council housing and council estates as development sites,” she said.

Anyone taking up such an offer would face “vicious” strings attached and have to find cash for maintenance, she added.

National Housing Federation chief executive David Orr said the proposal “makes no sense at all” and would cost a huge amount of money.
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