7,313 Help to Buy mortgages completed in six months

The group chief executive of Legal & General, Nigel Wilson, has told ITV News house prices will keep rising until the Government is bolder in tackling a "chronic shortage" of affordable new homes.

Read: Help to Buy may not be fuel behind soaring house prices

The government's "restrictive" Help to Buy mortgage scheme should offer a wider variety of mortgages to make it more attractive to those eligible, a mortgage broker has told ITV News.

Jonathan Harris of Anderson Harris said: "The products on offer tend to be very short-term fixes and with the rates people are obviously paying a preview for the higher loan-to-values.

"It would be good to see a more competitive product range and more innovation from the lenders," he added.

Chancellor George Osborne has tweeted welcoming figures which show the Help to Buy mortgage scheme has been used in 7,313 purchases so far.

The Help to Buy scheme is a "huge success" that has helped young people "without a rich mum and dad" to get on to the property ladder, David Cameron has said.

The Prime Minister was speaking after figures showed the government's mortgage guarantee scheme had been used in 7,313 completed purchases in its first six months.

Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander says Help to Buy "is not fuelling a housing boom" and dismissed calls for the mortgage scheme's limit to be cut.

Currently, mortgage guarantees are available for homes valued up to £600,000 - but Mr Alexander insists that the scheme is primarily helping people at the lower end of the market.

"What people should take confidence from in these figures is that Help to Buy is helping 95% outside of London, and it is helping people on low and middle incomes," he said.

"The average house price for people who are buying a property under the [mortgage] scheme is £150,000."

Prime Minister David Cameron has tweeted welcoming today's Help to Buy figures while on a visit to a construction site in Ilkeston in Derbyshire, where Taylor Wimpey is building 280 new homes.

Read: 7,313 Help to Buy mortgages completed in six months

The government's Help to Buy scheme is providing more support to buyers in the north-west and the east than to those in London and the south-east, according to the Treasury.

Only 5% of total mortgage completions using the scheme were for homes in London, with 14% in the south-east.

The finding follows claims that the scheme was supporting a housing "bubble" in the capital and south-east.

The average property bought with the government's Help to Buy mortgage guarantee scheme is valued at more than £100,000 less than the average UK property price.

ITV News Business Editor Joel Hills reports:

Households on middle incomes were the biggest beneficiaries of the Help to Buy mortgage guarantee, new figures show.

Data from the Treasury indicates that households earning between £30,000 to £50,000 accounted for 44% of all mortgage completions using the scheme.

ITV News' Joel Hills reports: