SOCIAL housing tenants across Worcestershire could be handed their homes for free under a radical move to slash the benefits bill.

The Conservative Party is working on proposals to extend the 'Right to Buy' scheme by encouraging more housing association tenants to find jobs.

Under the move, people in the properties would be handed their home for nothing if they came off benefits and stayed in work for a year.

It has split opinion around Worcestershire, with some tenants welcoming the move, but some concerned about the practicality of it.

The policy, which is expected to become part of the Tory General Election manifesto, will include a caveat that if the property is sold on the housing association will retain 40 per cent of its value, with the proceeds going towards building more properties.

But the outgoing tenant, who will own 60 per cent of the house, will keep the rest.

Social housing tenant and Falklands veteran Doug Padgett, 57, of Hathaway Close, Dines Green, said: "It sounds like a great idea, but the only problem would be actually finding a job.

"To be handed the ownership of your own property, come off benefits and find a job, that's excellent but there are loads of people going for the same work.

"I wonder if it will be as simple as anyone makes out. Finding a job can be difficult."

If enacted, the policy would spell huge changes for the likes of Fortis Living, the biggest housing association in the county with 15,000 properties stretching across Worcestershire and Herefordshire.

It has caused alarm nationally, with the National Housing Federation saying "it cannot be considered a serious solution to our long-term housing crisis".

Chief executive Deborah Orr has called it "stupid" and housing associations in Worcestershire have similar concerns.

Councillor Geoff Williams, who sits on the Fortis Living board, said: "The real issue is about making sure sufficient numbers of affordable housing are built.

"It seems to me that this would only reduce our stock and there is a real shortage in the county anyway."

But Worcester MP Robin Walker said he was "supportive of the principle of greater home ownership".

He said: "It's a very interesting suggestion, I am supportive of allowing people to own their own homes but to accompany this, the Government would have to predicate the proceeds (of future sales) into building more social housing.

"That was always the intention of Right to Buy, but as we've seen it didn't always end up that way."

Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith is believed to be strongly pushing for the idea, on the basis it would save on the welfare bill and boost home ownership.

The great social housing 'giveaway' has echoes of Margaret Thatcher's policies on property, although it has never gone as far as this suggestion.

It comes 18 months after Worcester City Council decided on a dramatic purge of its social housing waiting list, striking off 2,000 people.

As your Worcester News reported at the time, council bosses decided to write to every name on the list, giving them three months to re-register or be removed.

It led to a 47 per cent drop, from 4,500 names to a tally of around 2,393 after 2,100 people never got back to the authority.

The move led to questions about how stark Worcester's housing waiting problems really were, but despite the reduction it is still among the city's most hotly-debated issues.