John Prescott will announce his solution to the chronic shortage of affordable housing next week.
The deputy prime minister will make it harder for council tenants to buy their homes by cutting the discounts they are entitled to.
But he will insist new restrictions on the right to buy council homes in urban areas of housing shortage are no more than an extension of policies adopted by Tory governments in attractive rural areas.
The Financial Times leader says Prescott has yet to explain how reducing council house sales will improve the supply of affordable housing.
The most powerful weapon to boost housing supply would be to reform planning laws that choke the supply of suitable land, it says.
Financial Times 03/01/03 page 14 (Leader)
The Guardian 03/01/03 page 4
