NORTH Herefordshire's Green Party parliamentary spokeswoman Daisy Blench has criticised plans to extend the 'Right-to-Buy' scheme.

Responding to the Queen's Speech, Miss Blench said the Conservative extension of the scheme will allow 1.3 million housing association tenants to purchase their homes, but will reduce the overall public housing stock which is already in short supply.

She said: "Once again, climate change is ignored by this government, and an important opportunity to pursue measures to reduce carbon has been missed.

"I am also hugely concerned about Right-to-Buy which will be the biggest privatisation programme that we have seen in this country.

"It does not address the housing need of the 1.8 million families on council house waiting lists, at least 5,000 in Herefordshire, who are living in temporary accommodation or B&Bs.

"Many of those 1.3 million tenants, the poorest, won't be able to get a mortgage to buy their home, regardless of generous discounts, especially locally where incomes are low."

The Green Party, she said, wants to increase social housing stock and bring 700,000 empty homes into use.

"We should be building decent homes in partnership with local communities, that are properly insulated and cheap to heat," she added.

"We need to move away from thinking of houses primarily as financial assets and go back to thinking of them as homes."