Osborne: 95% mortgages part of 'aspirational society'

George Osborne has defended the Government's Help to Buy scheme against criticism, saying the "debate would benefit from a little less assertion and a little more examination of the evidence."

He said the programme "is a sensible, time-limited and necessary financial intervention to fix a specific financial problem: the dramatic reduction in the availability of high loan-to-value mortgages."

"90% and 95% LTV mortgages are not exotic weapons of financial mass destruction – they are a regular part of a healthy mortgage market and an aspirational society," he said.