A SCHEME designed to help first-time buyers get on the property ladder is failing in Dorset, with figures revealing that three boroughs in the county are in the bottom 20 local authorities in the country as ranked by take up of Help to Buy equity loans.

An investigation by the Dorset Echo reveals that there are five times as many first-time buyers in neighbouring Wiltshire using Help to Buy than in Dorset.

It comes as the government has praised the success of the scheme, which has helped 185,000 people in the country get on the housing ladder.

According to the experts, the low take up in Dorset is down to high prices and low income.

Of the properties available through the scheme in Dorset, prices start at £132,500 for a one bedroom flat in Weymouth. For just a little over £7,000 more, a first-time buyer could purchase a two-bed terraced house in Cornwall for £139,950. One bedroom flats in Devon start at £85,000 and £115,000 in Somerset.

Chris Howell, a mortgage advisor at Goadsby’s, said: “I think the problem is that they are only for new builds, so it is very limited here. I think it’s a good scheme but at the end of the day it’s down to people’s low income.

“I have done two Help to Buy applications this year, which is not too bad. We talk to most first-time buyers about it; it is a good way to get on the housing ladder, but income is very low in Weymouth and Portland and new builds are more expensive.”

Choice may also be an issue: on the Help to Buy South West website, just eight developments are advertised as offering homes through the scheme. Neighbouring counties had two or three times as many developments to choose from with 18 in Cornwall, 34 in Devon, 15 in Somerset and 19 in Wiltshire.

Developer F.H. Cummings Unlimited has Help to Buy properties available at two developments in Weymouth.

Director Melanie Cummings said the scheme has ‘definitely’ helped with sales.

“When it was first launched a lot of our sales were through Help to Buy. It certainly boosted our sales and I think without it, those sales would not have happened. Then there was a bit of a lull but at the moment I would say about half of our ongoing sales are Help to Buy.

“The developer has to be registered to offer properties through the scheme and when it first started, we attended a seminar. Perhaps the lack of sales in Dorset is down to fewer developers registering their properties, although I don’t know why they would not do so.”

She added that two out of 27 properties at the Corallian Court development were sold through Help to Buy between March 2014 and July 2016. And at Pemberley, the figure from January 2014 up to the present day is 18 out of 57.

Just 22 Help to Buy equity loans were handed out to first-time buyers in Weymouth and Portland between April 1, 2013 and June 30, 2016. In Purbeck there were 10 and in Christchurch 16. The areas respectively ranked 19th, 8th and 12th lowest in the country out of 322 local authority areas.

West Dorset did not fare much better, with 41 loans made to first time buyers. The total across all local authorities in Dorset – excluding Bournemouth and Poole – was 225. In Wiltshire, a unitary authority with a similar population to Dorset, there were 1,225 equity loans to first-time buyers across the same time period.

Buyers can take out a loan from the government of up to 20 per cent of the property value through the Help to Buy equity loan scheme. They then require only a five per cent deposit and a 75 per cent mortgage.