The Help to Buy scheme has only pushed house prices up

According to a damning retrospective from the House of Lords, Help to Buy has made it even more difficult for those on low and middle incomes to secure a home, writes Hannah Fearn

Since 2013, 340,000 new homes have been sold through the help-to-buy scheme (Getty/iStock)

The government’s help-to-buy scheme had one goal: to help bring the dream of home ownership back within the reach of ordinary earners – even in a spiralling market, and even after an economic crisis that had caused mortgage lenders to become a bit, well, antsy.

Under the scheme, the government accepted that if it wanted anyone with an average income to be able to buy, it would have to start acting in loco parentis for first-time buyers who didn’t have a Bank of Mum and Dad to call upon.

There were two offers from the state for priced-out young people: a 95 per cent mortgage, guaranteed by the government, for those who could pull together the traditional 5 per cent down-payment; and an equity loan from the government on new-build properties, to help bridge the finance gap and start developers building again.