The government is set to revive Margaret Thatcher’s popular ‘Right to Buy’ scheme, and it's estimated up to 2,000,000 council homes could be sold at discounts of up to 50%. The proceeds of the sales will be used to build more new homes in the area, and the hope is the scheme could result in 100,000 new homes being built which would create a much-needed 200,000 jobs as well as providing homes for families currently stuck on the waiting list for housing.

The scheme is supposed to be formally announced by David Cameron and Nick Clegg today, along with a raft of other measures designed to kick start the property market. These include new measures to release thousands of acres of publicly owned land for house building. The scheme is designed to bypass the current lack of financing as developers will be able to build on the land and will only have pay for it once properties are sold.

Cameron announced his intention to bring back the right to buy scheme at the Conservative party conference last month. Although the scheme was available under the Labour government, it wasn't so attractive as the level of discount was capped by John Prescott. The original Right to Buy scheme was introduced in the 80s by Margaret Thatcher, and was enormously popular as it offered discounts of up to 60%, enabling 2 million tenants to buy their own council homes between 1980 and 1998. Under this new scheme local authorities will be obliged to replace every council house sold with a new home, and limits will be applied to ensure council tenants living in fashionable areas cannot become millionaires overnight.