George Osborne introduced Help to Buy while he was chancellor in 2013

Taxpayer cash pouring into the housing market under the government’s Help to Buy scheme is creating a bubble that risks leaving a generation of homeowners stuck in negative equity, an investigation by The Times has found.

Analysis of house prices in ten towns and cities across Britain has found that homes available under the scheme cost an average of nearly 15 per cent more per square metre than comparable properties that are not eligible.

Experts say the figures show that housebuilders are using the higher budgets of Help to Buy purchasers to ramp up prices and profits, while young people are being left in overpriced homes that they will struggle to sell.

Taxpayers have pumped more than £8 billion into the Help to Buy