Revealed: How northern cities are the big winners from state-backed mortgages despite Cable's warning of London boom

12,875 sales completed using equity loan scheme since April last year

Just 6% of all sales are in London boroughs, with most in the north

Business Secretary Vince Cable warns London market is 'raging'

But Housing Minister Kris Hopkins says scheme is helping housebuilders



Almost 20,000 people are being helped to buy a new home using government-backed guarantees, with most outside London and the South East.

New figures show that since April 12,875 sales have been completed using the Help to Buy equity loan scheme, with another 6,446 in the pipeline.

And in a rebuff to Vince Cable's warning that the scheme could add to a 'raging' house price boom in the capital, a new league table of places benefitting is dominated by Leeds, Wiltshire, Milton Keynes and Manchester.

New figures show the top 20 areas where people have used the Help to Buy loan equity scheme to buy a new build property

The £3.5billion equity loan scheme has created 46 new homeowners every day since its launch, the government boasted.

A breakdown of where the homes are reveals Leeds to be the most popular city, with 230 completed sales and 52 planned.

In Wiltshire 224 sales have gone through with another 180 being processed, with another 197 in central Bedfordshire and 195 in Milton Keynes.

Of the total 12,875 completed sales in nine months, just 810 or 6 per cent were in the London Boroughs.

There have been no sales in some of the most exclusive parts of the capital, including Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea, Richmond upon Thames and City of London.

Warning: Business Secretary Vince Cable has suggested government-backed mortgages could be inflating property prices in London

Ministers see the results as proof the scheme is helping people get on to the housing ladder across the country, and is not responsible for soaring house prices in the capital.

Since the second part of the Help to Buy scheme was launched, guaranteeing mortgages for people with a 5 per cent deposit, Mr Cable has repeatedly called for it to be reined in.

Last month the Lib Dem minister warned: ‘There is a raging housing boom in London and the South East - not in other parts of the country.’

He said the Help to Buy scheme was ‘conceived in very different circumstances’ and should now be re-examined.

But today Tory Housing Minister Kris Hopkins insisted it was a success and was benefitting housebuilders as well as buyers.

He said: ‘I’m delighted that since the launch of Help to Buy: Equity Loan just nine short months ago, 12,875 new homeowners have been created – equivalent to 46 a day.

‘But with each of these sales being a newly-built home, I’m also pleased that housebuilders are using this momentum to build more, getting workers back on sites and getting Britain building once again.

‘All this is a key part of our long-term economic plan, helping bring housebuilding to its highest levels since 2007 and orders for construction materials at a 10-year high.’

However, new figures show that construction fell in the last three months of 2013, down 0.3 per cent.

Under the £3.5billion equity loan scheme, introduced in April last year, first-time buyers and home movers can get help to buy a property worth up to £600,000.

Housing minister Kris Hopkins (centre) said the figures were proof the scheme was helping buyers, and housebuilders

The buyer must find a deposit of at least 5 per cent, while the government will guarantee another 20 per cent of the value.

The remaining 75 per cent will be covered by a standard mortgage. It is designed to help who would not be able to afford the monthly repayments on a mortgage worth 95 per cent of the value.

The loan is repaid to the government when the property is sold.

The scheme was designed to encourage sales of new homes, to persuade construction firms to step up work on building sites.