More than 1,000 use Help to Buy for homes

More than 1,000 people across the Black Country, Staffordshire and Wyre Forest have bought homes through the Help to Buy scheme.

Wolverhampton had the largest number of people put down a deposit of as little as five per cent on the price of their home, receiving loans from the taxpayer of up to 20 per cent of the purchase cost.

The city saw 206 people take out an equity loan between April 2013 and the end of August 2014.

In Sandwell it was 195 and in Dudley it was 183.

There were 157 people who used Help to Buy loans in Walsall and 147 in Cannock Chase.

In Lichfield it was 88 and in Wyre Forest it was 69. Stafford saw 54 loans and South Staffordshire had 19.

Almost 53,000 households have bought a home in England through Help to Buy, according to housing and planning minister Brandon Lewis.

Nearly 80 per cent of sales have gone to first time buyers, with almost 70 per cent being for new build homes.

Mr Lewis said it had prompted the sharpest increase in private housebuilding starts for 40 years.

However Labour has claimed the Coalition Government is presiding over the lowest levels of house building in peacetime since the 1920s.

Mr Lewis said the figures were evidence that families were voting with their feet, and Help to Buy was expanding and accelerating the supply of new homes.

Housebuilding has climbed to the highest level since 2007, the construction sector has grown for 16 consecutive months, and companies are now taking on new workers at the fastest rate since 1997, he said.

Mr Lewis said: "Almost 53,000 households have now benefited through Help to Buy in England.

"Hard working families are getting the right support to step onto the housing ladder, and housebuilding has climbed to its highest level since 2007.

"Postcode data for each constituency is now available, so local communities can see exactly how this vital part of our long-term economic plan is fixing the broken housing market we inherited in 2010, and supporting their area."

The highest number of equity loan sales were in Wiltshire with 557, Leeds with 539 and Central Bedfordshire with 504

Peterborough, Milton Keynes, Bedford, County Durham, Birmingham, Bradford, Manchester, Kingston-upon-Hull, Aylesbury Vale, Telford, Liverpool, Wakefield, Colchester, and South Gloucestershire have all achieved more than 300 sales.