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Tue, 14 Apr 2026

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 Help to Buy mostly helped high earners, IFS says

People with lower incomes benefitted less from the house-buying scheme than those with high incomes, the influential think tank says.
A new report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has found that the Help to Buy scheme, introduced in England in 2013, mainly benefited higher earners living in areas with lower house prices. The scheme was intended to help first-time home buyers by providing government-backed loans to cover some of the costs associated with buying a home. However, the IFS report states that the scheme had a limited impact on social mobility and made only a minor difference to housing affordability. In fact, it found that higher-income individuals gained the most from the scheme, which allowed them to spend more on homes, thereby pushing up prices even further. The IFS also pointed out that the scheme was largely ineffective in areas with high house prices, such as London and the South East, where fewer new-build properties were available within the scheme. As a result, higher earners living in cheaper areas benefited most from the scheme. Critics of the scheme have long argued that it pushed up house prices by allowing people to spend more on homes, while defenders say it helped many people buy their first home and boosted housebuilding. The IFS report's findings echo previous criticisms from the official government watchdog. Despite its limitations, the Help to Buy mortgage guarantee scheme remains in place across the UK, while the equity loan scheme is being closed in England and Scotland.