David Cameron will launch the Conservative election manifesto today with a pledge to extend the Right to Buy scheme.
The prime minister will position the Tories as the “party of working people”, as he unveils the policy, which could benefit 1.3m households.
The policy would offer the same discounts to housing association tenants that are currently reserved for local authority homes.
It would be paid for by requiring councils to sell off their most expensive houses, which would then be replaced by building cheaper buildings.
The Tories plan for 15,000 properties to be sold each year, which would raise some £4.5bn to pay for the Right to Buy scheme. One billion pounds of those proceeds would be channelled to a new fund to encourage housebuilding on brownfield land.
Cameron will say the proposal will prove “the dream of a property-owning democracy is alive”.
The National Housing Federation has criticised the policy, saying it is “deeply unfair” to private rental tenants and is the “wrong solution to our housing crisis”.
Labour dismissed it as “yet another uncosted, unfunded and unbelievable announcement”, while the Liberal Democrats said it would “only benefit the lucky few” and also questioned the funding plan for the programme.
There are reports that Cameron will also announce plans to link the personal tax allowance to the minimum wage so that the lowest-paid workers do not pay income tax.