THE number of Andover families helped onto the housing ladder by the Government’s Help to Buy scheme is more than six times higher than in Winchester, new figures show.

A total of 338 sales have so far gone through in North West Hampshire under the flagship mortgage scheme, compared to just 53 in the county town.

The project has helped 100,000 home owners nationally – the equivalent of 131 households a day – enabling them to snap up a mortgage with a five per cent deposit.

North West Hants is leading the way in the county, with 272 houses sold so far under the scheme in Basingstoke, 265 in Eastleigh, 258 in Portsmouth and 202 in Southampton Itchen.

Over 80 per cent of those helped are first-time buyers and 94 per cent of sales have been outside of London.

Royston Smith MP welcomed the new figures.

The Southampton Itchen member said: “Conservatives believe that everyone who works hard should be able to have a home of their own.

“But when we came to office, too many people couldn’t afford the huge deposit they needed to get on the housing ladder.

“We weren’t prepared to let that continue which is why, as part of our long-term economic plan, we launched the Help to Buy scheme so people could get an affordable mortgage with only a five per cent deposit.

“Helping more families to buy their own home is a key part of our One Nation policies so that working people in all parts of the country are able to enjoy security and opportunity.”

John Leeson, managing director of Belgarum Estate Agents, said the figures for Winchester indicate that the city is simply too costly for many people trying getting onto the ladder for the first time.

He said: “I guess the reason it is so limited is because Winchester is very expensive and a lot of Winchester is made up fairly affluent areas, for affluent people to buy, and there seems to be extra help from the bank of mum and dad.

“You see a lot of parents with equity in their own property or savings and they want to help their children get on the ladder and that’s a lot of what we see.

“There’s also been a lot less building in Winchester, less development, I think would be fair to say.”