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Chancellor George Osborne ladled praise on the Tories’ Help to Buy scheme yesterday despite evidence it has benefitted the wealthy most and is fuelling a new house price bubble.
The Tory aristocrat lectured MPs on how his “aspirational” state-backed mortgage scheme had helped 38,000 households “get on in life.”
Conservative backbencher Fiona Bruce planted a “question” during Commons Treasury questions, saying that Help to Buy had been a resounding success for first-time buyers outside London and south-east England and that the average price paid for homes under the scheme was less than the Britain-wide £265,000.
Mr Osborne replied smugly: “She is absolutely right.”
But Office for National Statistics figures revealed that more than half of the 48,000 households applying for the state-backed mortgages had incomes of £40,000 or more — putting them in the top 30 per cent of the population.
More than 40 per cent of those applying for government loans bought houses at or above £200,000 — the average sale price in England once London and the south-east are excluded.
And in the six months to June just 14,296 new-build homes were bought through the scheme, barely making a dent on a housing shortage that has seen rents spiral upwards and left 1.6 million languishing on council waiting lists last year.
Critics slammed Help to Buy for encouraging people to take out big loans which they will be unable to afford if interest rates rise.
Construction workers union Ucatt general secretary Steve Murphy said that the scheme was “likely to add long-term misery to the housing market.
“It has pushed up prices in an already overheated market, meaning that many more people are priced out of owning their own homes.”
Mr Murphy added that the scale of Britain’s problems would only be solved by a massive council house-building programme.
“This will not only provide homes for thousands of families who can’t afford to buy but will also reduce demand in the private sector and reduce pressure on the private sector both for renting and buying.”
