Cash grants worth thousands of pounds could be offered to council house tenants to get them to buy homes privately.
Colchester Council hopes the idea of handing out cash sums will help preserve its housing stock as well as saving public money.
The council's housing stock is dwindling each year as tenants exercise their right to buy up their council homes.
Under the new proposals, tenants will be offered a proportion of the discount they would have got if they bought their council house to go and buy a home on the open market.
The grants are likely to be worth up to £20,000.
Phil Harris, the council's housing needs and options manager, said giving out lump sums to help people buy their home in the private sector would actually save the council money.
He said people were buying their own homes at a discounted rate. But, he said, to replace that home costs a lot of money - about £70,000 for a standard four-bedroom house.
Rather than lose the council house, tenants would be offered money to go and buy a house.
Mr Harris said it would free up council homes to other needy people and would help preserve the council's housing stock.
He said: "The attraction to the tenant is that, unlike the right to buy scheme, they are not stuck with their new homes for three years."
Published Friday, January 10, 2003
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