Exclusive: George Osborne’s programme to reduce costs for first-time buyers delivered £25bn in social value in UK last year

George Osborne’s scheme to reduce costs for first-time buyers represented “very high value for money”, according to a government review, bolstering the case of senior government figures who have been arguing to resurrect the idea.

An official audit of the help-to-buy programme has calculated it provided £25bn of social value to the UK in the last financial year, despite criticisms it was overly expensive and only served to inflate house prices.