John Prescott will next week claim that his new restrictions on the right to buy council homes in urban areas suffering housing shortages are simply an extension of policies adopted by Tory governments when similar shortages happened in attractive rural areas, reports today's Guardian.

The deputy prime minister is expected to announce that local authorities in property hotspots will be able to cap the discounts available to tenants to less than half the £38,000 maximum allowed in the most expensive regions.

Today's Mirror carries excerpts from a leaked letter from Prescott to the prime minister in which he writes: "I do not want media coverage of my communities plan to be swamped by headlines on right to buy."