A Labour candidate has blasted the right to buy scheme after accusing the Tories of "robbing housing associations" of their stock.

Last week, Prime Minister David Cameron announced the right to buy scheme would be extended to allow housing association tenants to buy their homes at a discounted rate.

Three Rivers District Council confirmed there are 5,240 properties owned by housing associations in the district.

During a hustings event last night [Monday] at St Joan of Arc Catholic School, in High Street, Rickmansworth, Labour candidate Simon Diggins OBE said the policy was “robbing housing associations” of their stock and said David Gauke should be “ashamed” of the policy.

The comments came during a debate over the lack of social or affordable housing in the country.

In December, Three Rivers was named as the most expensive place to rent in the UK outside of London and the National Housing Federation attributed the result to “rising house prices and stagnant wages”.

The figures from National Housing Federation said people renting privately in Three Rivers are being forced to spend more than half of their monthly wages on rent, with the average monthly rent bill costing £1,372.

Mr Diggins said: “It is nonsense to have the price of affordable housing at 85 per cent of the market rate”.

The former army officer joked: “If you go down to Moor Park and look at the affordable housing prices down there, you would have to be as rich as David Gauke to afford that”.

“The thing we are not going to be doing is robbing housing associations of their stock.

“The right to buy scheme is a red herring, it is appalling, it is an election bribe and David should be ashamed of himself.”

David Gauke, who won the seat in 2005 and 2010, told the hall: "We have built more council houses in the last year than we have done for 23 years.

“We are in part of the Green Belt where we still wish to preserve the different communities we have and we do need more houses.

“We are seeing an increase in the number of council houses and the number of planning permissions being granted and an increase in the number of house-start ups.

“I want people to be able to get on to the housing ladder.”

Nigel Quinton agreed with Mr Diggins, saying: “We have got to get more proper affordable housing- social housing. Affordable housing being 85 per cent of the market rate is not right.

“They do not get it the Conservatives. They do not understand people cannot afford to live in communities they need to live in.

Paul de Hoest, who stood in for Charlotte Pardy- the Green Party candidate- argued there are enough Brownfield sites across the country which could be used for housing.

Despite “developers preferring” Green Belt sites, there would not be a need to build on them if Brownfield sites were utilised, Mr de Hoest said.

Mark Anderson, UKIP’s candidate for the constituency, said he was personally saving to buy, but said the solution would not be to build houses “down both sides of the A41”.

He added: “It is not just an issue of supply, it is about demand. Housing is being seen as an investment. Investors are buying houses, which then puts prices up, and they are looking for a 25 to 30 year return on the purchase.

Graham Cartmell, who represents the Common Sense Party, argued that none of the previous governments had solved the housing crisis.