THE housing market is key to the country’s economy.

If the housing market stalls, the economy stalls.

So there was a logic behind giving people a chance to get on to that all important housing ladder to keep the property market moving.

Back in the Eighties, the Conservative Government, promoting home ownership, devised the Right to Buy scheme, which was introduced through the Housing Act of 1980.

It meant tenants of council houses could buy their homes for a discounted rate and, therefore, own their own home.

However, it changed the dynamic of housing in Britain as councils were also not allowed to build more council homes so the stock of council houses depleted.

Decades on and there is a well-recognised housing shortage and people having to rent struggle to find the fee which often exceeds that of a mortgage.

Meanwhile, it seems tenants who have bought their own homes have cashed in.

Figures discovered by the BBC reveal the average Colchester property owner who bought their council home profited by an average of £62,000 when they came to sell it on.

The past is the past but we are living with its legacy.

There is a clamour for more houses to be built but who can afford them?

There has to be an acknowledgement that not while everyone needs a home, not everyone can afford one.

There are shared ownership schemes but they are few and far between. More needs to be done to help people get homes and crucially ones they can afford.