THOUSANDS of families in Oxfordshire used Help to Buy to get on to the housing ladder.

New figures released by the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) reveal that a total of 5,440 homebuyers in the county used the government scheme since it launched seven years ago.

Within the county the districts which made the best use of the scheme were Cherwell with 1,950, Vale of White Horse with 1,654 and South Oxfordshire with 1,265.

Of the total amount of residents that were forced to use the scheme, 4,267 were first time buyers.

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Help to Buy allows people to buy a home under the value of £600,000 with just a five per cent deposit.

The government lends the buyer 20 per cent of the value of the property in the form of an interest free equity loan for five years.

Steve Barton, senior sales manager at David Wilson Homes, said: “Oxfordshire has produced some strong results and it is great to see districts such as Cherwell achieving such high figures.

"Help to Buy has proved so helpful to so many homebuyers and we would encourage anyone looking to buy a home with lower upfront costs to get in touch."