A TOTAL of 116 Bradford households have joined a flagship scheme to allow them to beat high prices and buy their own home.

And ‘Help to Buy’ - the Chancellor’s project to encourage mortgage loans, by offering lenders a taxpayer-backed guarantee – is proving even more popular in the rest of West Yorkshire.

In Kirklees, 143 families have signed up to buy properties, the joint fourth highest total anywhere in England – a list topped by Leeds with 260. In Calderdale, the figure is 94.

Under the scheme, lenders are encouraged to offer mortgages by the Government covering all but five per cent of the loss suffered in the event of repossession.

It was heavily criticised for risking another damaging housing bubble, by artificially inflating property prices, but such attacks have been muted more recently.

The Treasury said the statistics showed the highest number of mortgage guarantee scheme completions are in the North of England – not where house prices are most heated.

Furthermore, the average house price for ‘Help to Buy’ is £187,800, well below the national average price of £265,000.

George Osborne said: “This is a key part of our long-term economic plan, which is supporting hard-working people to secure a better future for their families.

“Importantly, Help to Buy is also driving a big increase in housebuilding in Britain, boosting the construction industry and increasing housing supply.”

The figures are separate from the equity loan part of Help to Buy, which offers up to 20 per cent of the purchase price - provided a five per cent deposit is paid down.

No interest has to be paid for the first five years and the loan can be paid back on the sale of the property.

That part of Help to Buy also got off to a strong start in Bradford, where 153 households took out a loan in the first nine months of the programme – borrowing almost £4m.

However, the ‘NewBuy’ initiative, which allowed deposits of just five per cent, but offered no equity loan flopped, delivering only 16 mortgages in 15 months.

Across the country, there have been 29,829 completions of equity loans - compared with 18,564 completions under the mortgage guarantee scheme.

Ministers have argued that their support for home buyers is finally getting the country building again, with more than 400,000 homes built since 2010.

But home ownership in England has fallen to its lowest level since 1987 – because of high house prices and a squeeze on mortgages.