GOVERNMENT plans to extend the Right to Buy will deprive Winchester of family homes, a meeting was warned.

City councillor Martin Tod said Conservative proposals to let housing association tenants buy their homes at a discount would force Winchester City Council to sell some of its most expensive homes to fund the scheme in poorer areas.

The new policy, formally announced in the Queen's Speech last week, is expected to be funded by forcing councils to sell their most expensive houses, though many details are unclear.

"The problem is only half of the councils in the country have council houses," Cllr Tod, a Liberal Democrat, told overview and scrutiny committee.

"The other half of councils in the country have transferred their council houses to housing associations. The net effect will be we sell off 10 per cent of our council stock and most of the money will go to the rest of the country, which has already transferred their stock to housing associations.

"The impact is that we sell off family homes [and] at best replace them locally with small flats.

"Part of [the 12th century] St Cross Hospital would be subject to Right to Buy," he added. "The way the legislation is being talked about, that's a possibility."

Cllr Stephen Godfrey, the council's Conservative leader, told the meeting: "We do want to make sure we protect both our own council housing stock and stock of housing associations in the Winchester district, to make sure we have sufficient funds to meet our own needs locally.

"We've suffered in the past from having insufficient funds and the Right to Buy income being taken by central government to other parts of the undeserving world, and we need to protect ourselves."