CONSERVATIVE plans to extend Margaret Thatcher’s right to buy represent a new multibillion-pound raid on public housing, trade unions and housing campaigners warned yesterday.

Unveiled in the Tory manifesto, the renewed scheme aims to give 1.3 million housing association tenants the right to buy their home at huge discounts of up to £77,000 or £102,700 in London.

But unions predict the plan will end up seeing property magnates and private landlords getting their grubby hands on the housing association homes.