Sir, – Imagine the shock if owners of shops, houses, flats or business premises rented out in Northallerton and Thirsk woke up to find their tenants had a "right to buy" at a price well below the market rate – with the owners shouldering the loss.

Words like, shock, horror, daylight robbery, unjust, unfair, illegal, unethical come to mind. This is what housing associations have woken up to since hearing the Conservative Party manifesto.

The government does not own these properties. Social and affordable properties, built by us, for the public sector, are transferred forcibly to the private sector. Properties with regulated responsible landlords, with a duty of care for tenants, replaced by those with their eyes on high rents and short term profit – often 'buy to let' landlords. A third of properties sold under right to buy policies in London, are now in the hands of private landlords. It reads like a policy of enriching a few private owners at the cost of asset stripping socially useful non-profit public bodies, like Broadacres Housing, that we own.

The social reward for Britons in 1945, was a new settlement between the state, citizens and business – the Welfare State. Across the western world it was implemented to remove the five evils: homelessness, unemployment, poverty, ignorance and illness. Half of Britain's current housing stock was built under this policy, mostly by local councils, between 1945-1980 – despite massive public debt and austerity. Enlightened public bodies built the public utilities that served us all so well – reservoirs, schools, hospitals, roads, railways, sports fields, libraries that improved human well-being, ensuring our energy supplies as well. All are now planned for sell off, or "marketisation".

Before you vote on election day, please consider what will follow if you vote Conservative. Imagine the Sowerby Gateway, with its affordable and social housing, which your money is helping build, being sold off to private landlords, while housing needs and waiting lists grow.

Dr JOHN R GIBBINS

Sowerby, Thirsk.