Council tenants who look for work should be rewarded with part-ownership of their home.

A think-tank has recommended the policy as a way to break down the 'ghettoes' of Britain's council estates.

The report by The Centre For Social Justice, set up by the former Conservative leader Iain Duncan-Smith reveals how many of the stable and prosperous working class communities of the 1960s and 70s have become trapped in sink estates, living on benefits that few will ever escape.

It proposes giving people a stake in their council house to encourage them back into work.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today Programme this morning, Iain Duncan-Smith said there is no incentive for some of the country's poorer communities to change their behaviour.

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He said: "These estates have become ghettoes of the most broken families and their incentive is to remain like that. Most kids growing up there will never see anybody going out to work, the number of broken families increases all the time and so the idea is that you have to try and give people an incentive."

An earlier poll conducted by YouGov showed 70 per cent of those who pay for their social housing rent on time want to own their own home, and Mr Duncan-Smith believes this is evidence for the need for a change in policy.

He said: "What we're saying is make that aspiration a part of the process of repairing these lives and give them some hope at the end of it. It would improve the quality of life around them - people with assets are more positive, more constructive, more likely to do the right thing."