Help-to-buy scheme has benefited more rich than poor households, new report claims
THE Government's Help to Buy scheme has benefited more rich than poor households, a new report found amid claims that the scheme is a "major failure".
Only 4,142 households with incomes of £30,000 or less used Help to Buy in the last year, according to housing charity Shelter.
This represent fewer than 0.2 per cent of England's private renting households in this income bracket.
In comparison, more than 5,500 households with an annual income of over £80,000 have been given help-to-buy loans in the past year
Shockingly, around one in 20 households who use the scheme earn over £100,000.
The flagship scheme has also boosted profits of the country's three largest developers - Persimmon, Barratt and Taylor Wimpey.
A Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government spokeswoman said: "Whatever your background or postcode, you should have the opportunity to buy a place to call your own.
"So far Help to Buy schemes have been used over 500,000 times to help families across England buy their home and we are determined to go further to help people on lower incomes onto the housing ladder.
"That's why this week we announced a new shared ownership scheme which will allow people on lower incomes buy their home in 1 per cent chunks."
The Help to Buy equity loan has already been criticised for helping rich buyers purchase more expensive homes, earlier this summer.
The scheme is supposed to help first-time buyers on the property ladder with smaller mortgages but analysis by the National Audit Office (NAO) found that a third who used it didn't need to.
It found that 37 per cent of households would not have been able to buy any property without the scheme, but 31 per cent could have bought a place without it.
Around one in 25 home buyers using the scheme had household incomes of over £100,000, the NAO said.
Last month, the Sun revealed how taking the Help to Buy loan out on the wrong day could cost first-time buyers £4,765.
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