It is fair to say that Help to Buy has been something of a Marmite government scheme. Beloved by builders, who say it has increased supply of homes, its detractors claim it has driven up property prices.

Meeting Housing Demand, a House of Lords report released in January this year, concluded that Help to Buy “inflates prices by more than its subsidy value in areas where it is needed the most”.  Financial Times columnist Neil Collins called the scheme “Help to Buy Yachts for housebuilding executives” in a column in 2018.