Osborne's reforms have a shade of Thatcherism

London: George Osborne pledged to revitalise right-to-buy schemes, calling them "one of the greatest social policies of our time" as the Chancellor of the Exchequer evoked the days of the Thatcher era.

Social housing tenants will be offered a 50 per cent discount on the value of their homes, with money raised from sales spent on new houses for social rent, Osborne said in his autumn statement.

Critics, including the National Housing Federation, which represents social landlords, warned that the policy could reduce the supply of subsidised homes. The announcement was part of widely trailed measures that did away with existing incentives to stimulate the housing market and announced new ones.

Hopes that a freeze on stamp-duty for first-time buyers on properties worth £125,000 (Dh717,396) to £250,000 would be extended were disappointed. The measure will come to an end in March, as announced two years ago. Instead, Osborne confirmed the introduction of a mortgage indemnity scheme that will enable up to 100,000 first-time buyers to borrow up to 95 per cent of the property value on new-build homes - with the government underwriting part of the risk. With little that had not been announced, critics accused the government of ignoring the house building industry.

James Pargeter, partner at Drivers Jonas Deloitte, a property consultancy said: "It is disappointing that nothing more for housing has been announced today: where the sector thought it might have had an extra boost within the package of infrastructure funding, this hasn't happened."

David Orr, chief executive of the National Housing Federation, said: "The government has largely ignored the one industry which would provide the Treasury with the biggest bang for the taxpayers' buck: house building.

"Previously right to buy was great for those lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time . . . but disastrous for those who later needed a rented home and found a desperate shortage of social homes. We cannot allow that to happen again."

A £400 million fund is to be used to kick-start building projects. It is intended to produce 16,000 homes on sites that have planning permission but are not deemed economically viable to build on. The government also agreed to free public sector land with "build now, pay later" deals for developers, releasing sites to build 100,000 homes and create up to 200,000 jobs.

Steve Morgan, chairman of Redrow, the housebuilder, said it was a step in the right direction.

— Financial Times