Flagship Tory policy Help to Buy does not actually help people on to the housing ladder but just drives up prices, Vince Cable told the Liberal Democrat conference yesterday.

The Business Secretary endorsed new party policy on tackling housing, which includes proposals to allow councils to suspend the right to buy, before members approved the plan.

He launched the sharp attack on the Tory housing scheme as he wound up an hour-long debate on the policy paper.

“How do you stimulate supply? Mr Osborne has this policy called Help to Buy,” he said.

“But it doesn’t actually help you to buy, because it drives up the price and makes it less affordable.

“What we really need is help to build.”

He said current housing policy was creating “inequalities in social classes and between generations.”

The policy paper calls for government investment to build new homes affordable to people on low and middle incomes.

It commits the Liberal Democrats to a housing investment bank tasked with simplifying the allocation of public funds and drawing in private finance to help with house building.