The Communities Secretary said today that tenants in social housing should be able to buy their home bit-by-bit, starting with a stake as small as 10 per cent. In a speech to the Fabian Society, Ruth Kelly said that home ownership should be open to all.

The proposed “right to own” scheme would echo the Right to Buy programme introduced by the Conservatives in 1980 – but closed to many housing association residents – and would allow more tenants to part-own their home or to buy outright over years.

Ms Kelly said: “[A] challenge is making sure that no one is excluded from the benefits of owning housing assets.

“That of course is about social justice. And it is about allowing people to get on in life and continuing to break down the barriers to social mobility.”

She said that ten years ago, nine out of ten first time buyers could afford a home without help from their friends or relatives, but that today almost half rely on support.

The proposed scheme would be an extension of the current Homebuy initiative, which allows council and housing association tenants to buy a minimum stake of 25 per cent in their property.

The opposition parties criticised Ms Kelly’s proposals. Michael Gove, the Shadow Minister for Housing, said: “The reality behind Labour’s rhetoric is that their Homebuy scheme is needlessly bureaucratic and has helped only a tiny handful of people, while cuts to Right to Buy have made it more difficult to buy their own home.”

The Conservatives pointed out that the Homebuy scheme is voluntary and that only one local authority and 42 of the country’s 1,400 housing associations offer it to tenants. However, in her speech today, Ms Kelly acknowledged the current initiative’s small reach and said the proposed “right to own” could be rolled out as a “single modern set of rights for all tenants”.

Despite this apparent commitment to all, Ms Kelly said: “We would want to make sure that support benefited responsible tenants who make a real contribution to their community, rather than the disrespectful and disruptive minority.”

Dan Rogerson MP, of the Liberal Democrats, said: “Yet again the Government and those living on planet Whitehall have missed the point. The real crisis in social housing is the half a million extra households on council waiting lists since Labour came to power.”

On new housing, Ms Kelly re-affirmed the Government’s “ambition” to build 200,000 homes a year by 2016. She also said the Government would need to "go beyond" the 30,000 social homes now built per year.

She said that past mistakes in social housing – like “failed superestates” – must never be repeated. “We are not doing well enough at the moment. The trends show that social tenants are getting less and less satisfied with their housing over time.”

Citing the Stern report on climate change and recent UN research, Ms Kelly said that new homes must be greener and spoke of her department’s work with housebuilders to design and build “flagship zero-carbon and low-carbon communities".

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