Seven out of 10 want to keep the right to buy

The poll also found that six out of 10 members of the public agree with Conservative shadow deputy prime minister David Davis that the right to buy should be extended to housing association tenants.

The findings will further fuel the debate over whether the right to buy should be suspended because of the housing crisis. The government is already reviewing abuses of the right, an issue deputy prime minister John Prescott has promised to act on, sparking a surge of applications. Prescott has pledged to keep the policy despite criticism from charities such as Shelter and many councils.

Of the 1003 people surveyed, 41% agreed strongly that the policy should stay and a further 30% tended to agree, meaning overall, a massive 71% supported keeping the policy.

Of the remainder, 20% disagreed with keeping the policy in its present form, with 12% feeling strongly about this.

Support for the policy was widespread across people living in all types of tenures. Geographically, support was stronger in the North – where 78% agreed with keeping the policy – than further south.

In the 18-24 age group, the 25-34 age group and the over-65s, three-quarters of the people questioned agreed with the right to buy.

Expansion of the policy to housing association tenants received similar support across the board: six out of 10 people agreed with the expansion proposal outlined by Davis at the Conservative Party conference in Bournemouth last week. Just 22% disagreed.

Half the owner-occupiers questioned supported expanding the policy, as did 67% of private renters and three-quarters of the people living in other types of tenure.

Richard Davis, research team manager at MORI's Social Research Institute, said: "The survey shows a clear majority in favour of the continuation of right to buy and for extending the right to housing association tenants, but what is interesting is that there is considerably less support for the policy in London than in the North, where housing shortages are generally less severe."

In the next couple of days, David Davis will issue a consultation paper on extending the right to buy to another million tenants. Money raised from the sales would be reinvested in affordable housing, he said last week.

But the housing sector was sceptical about this idea, saying too much private money was tied up in association stock for lenders to sanction such a move (HT 10 October, page 7). The Rural Housing Trust has written to the shadow deputy prime minister warning that extending the right to buy would reduce rural supplies of affordable housing.

Research commissioned by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, which will inform any policy changes, is expected in November.

Also this week Wandsworth council urged the government to abolish discount caps, saying that for financial reasons just one in four right-to-buy applicants complete their purchase.