RBS and Halifax arrange over 1,000 Help to Buy mortgages each in a month

RBS/NatWest has agreed mortgages with 1,080 customers since the second phase of Help to Buy was launched a month ago.

And Halifax said it had received 1,309 mortgage applications since the scheme was launched.

The majority of borrowers were young first-time buyers on average incomes.

Prime Minister David Cameron said this was proof the scheme was helping ordinary people get onto the property ladder, rather than fuelling a bubble.

State-backed RBS, which owns NatWest, said 73% of the mortgages were for first-time buyers. If all the applications are approved, the bank will be lending £171.6 million under the scheme, according to a report from Reuters on Sunday.

It said the average amount its customers wanted to borrow was £159,000, which they used to buy homes worth on average £167,565.

Lloyd Cochrane, head of mortgages at NatWest and RBS, said: "The majority are young first-time buyers who, without Help to Buy, wouldn't have been able to consider a mortgage or buy a home."

Halifax, owned by part-nationalised Lloyds Banking Group, said it had received 1,309 mortgage applications from buyers across the UK, worth a total of £194 million.

More than 80% were from people outside London and the South East and first-time buyers. The average property price was £160,157.

David Cameron will be hoping these figures silence critics of the scheme, which include from former Chancellor Lord Lamont, who warned it encourages buyers to take on too much debt.

And the CML also warned last week that the market risks becoming addicted to government stimulus.

But Help Buy to now faces stiff competition as smaller building societies offer cheaper rates using private insurance rather than the government guarantee.