IT was arguably Margaret Thatcher's most astute political policy. With the exception of the Falklands War victory, nothing won her more votes than the "right to buy" scheme.

Thousands of people seized the opportunity to become property owners by buying their council houses at knock-down prices. At a stroke, these traditional Labour voters became Maggie's biggest fans.

But a policy which was ballot box dynamite has had severe long-term repercussions.

It is impossible to prove that without the right to buy scheme we would not be facing a housing crisis today. But we can be certain that the crisis would have been easier to manage.

The massive reduction in the stock of council housing has affected every local authority. York is particularly under pressure.

Demand for private housing is so high that property prices have gone through the roof. We report welcome news tonight that house inflation in the city is beginning to level off, but that still leaves the first rung of the property ladder way out of reach of many potential buyers.

There is a desperate need for affordable housing. The alternative is for people to move out of York, a particularly dismaying prospect for people who were born and bred here.

Housing association schemes, together with the council's policy to require developers provide a proportion of affordable homes, help provide cheaper accommodation. But they do not come close to replacing the number of council homes lost to the right to buy scheme.

So we welcome the Government's Housing Bill, which will bring in measures to keep council housing under local authority control for longer.

These measures may infuriate tenants of council homes. After all, why should they be the only ones not making a killing on the property market?

But the right to buy discount was always a distortion of the market which deserves correction.

The new laws are necessary to protect the country's dwindling stock of social housing.

Updated: 11:04 Wednesday, July 23, 2003