Help to Buy scheme facing the axe in government review

Speculation is growing that the Help to Buy scheme is set to be discontinued following a review by government ministers.

Recent research suggests that the scheme - which was implemented to help first-time buyers - is pushing up house prices and only helping wealthy people to move up the housing ladder.

According to the Telegraph, the scheme could be replaced with something directly aimed at helping less affluent families.

Help to Buy was launched in 2013 and has been used by more than 420,000 people, according to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

It is estimated that around 365,000 first-time buyer households have used the scheme to get on the housing ladder.

However, research by Hamptons International suggests that a fifth of households have used the scheme to upgrade their homes and that it has been used by a significant proportion of high income households.

Following reports over the weekend, Labour's shadow housing minister, John Healey, said that the scheme should be targeted towards buyers with 'ordinary' incomes.

"There are long-run flaws in the  Help to Buy scheme which Ministers have failed to fix," he said.

"As it stands, the scheme is poorly targeted and poor value for taxpayers’ money. Help to Buy should be overhauled and tightly targeted on first-time buyers with ordinary incomes, as Labour has long-argued."

Current funding for Help to Buy is due to run out in 2021 - the government has already pledged £8.9 billion to the scheme with a further £10 billion pledged last year.