Help to buy has had its day. Time to tax the builders and close the scheme

Osborne’s plan to assist first-time buyers has created colossal windfall profits. The Treasury deserves some of that money

If the major banks – rather than housebuilders – were the chief beneficiaries of the government’s help-to-buy scheme, the financial regulator would probably list it as a scam. Ministers would be up in arms and bankers would again be the pariahs they were in 2008.

Help to buy is a government scheme that supports the purchase of a newbuild home. It was launched in 2013 and given a reboot last year that will now allow it to run until 2023.

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