But between 2012 and 2019, profits at the housebuilder Persimmon trebled, with the York-based developer making more than £1bn in both 2018 and 2019.
In the past decade, criticism has regularly been levelled at the premium it added to new-build prices.
The audit discovered that Help to Buy customers paid slightly more for their homes than other buyers of properties with similar characteristics in the same area. However, the difference was small – around 1pc – the report found.
The average price paid for a Help to Buy home was £206,200, while the average paid for homes outside the scheme was £204,300.
Housing industry figures have also regularly blamed the scheme for playing a role in inflating house prices excessively. A House of Lords report from 2022 concluded that Help to Buy pushed up house prices in England and failed to provide good value for money to the taxpayer.
But the government’s newly released audit found the scheme had increased house prices by just two percentage points.
The report did, however, concede that house prices in London increased sharply following the introduction of the scheme in 2013, but it could not confidently conclude the rise was caused by Help to Buy.
The review found that 46pc of customers said they could not have bought a home without the scheme in place.
A government spokesman said: “There are no current plans to introduce a new Help to Buy scheme. But it’s important to learn what went well and what went wrong with the previous scheme, which is why we undertook a robust evaluation, as is normal for all major programmes.
“More widely, we’re already taking decisive action to get more people on the housing ladder with a comprehensive mortgage guarantee scheme and plans for a new first-time buyer Isa product.”
