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" If you&amp;#039;re somebody who&amp;#039;s currently struggling to get on the property ladder - and we assume that&amp;#039;s about 99% of us considering the astronomical housing prices that are currently raging through the UK - then you&amp;#039;ve probably got yourself a Help to Buy ISA sitting somewhere, waiting to be used for a deposit one day. You know, Help to Buy? That whole savings, mortgage and loan scheme that George Osborne said would boost home ownership and stop making young people feel like they&amp;#039;d only manage to buy a bedsit before the age of 55? Yeah, well the government has scrapped arguably the biggest part of it.     It&amp;#039;s been announced today that the Help to Buy mortgage guarantee scheme is being pulled less than three years after it was first offered to those in need of a little boost onto the property ladder.  In a letter to the Bank of England, Chancellor Philip Hammond revealed that Help to Buy &amp;#039;will not be extended&amp;#039; beyond 2016 - meaning that we&amp;#039;re all going to be back to square one in just over three months&amp;#039; time.  Mortgage lenders are said to have warned the government that this closure would force first-time buyers backwards, but sadly, it looks like nobody has listened.  Hammond claims in his letter that Help to Buy has helped &amp;#039;over 86,000 households&amp;#039;, which is nice and all, but with no new policies to help buyers announced, it&amp;#039;s hard to feel to positive about it. He adds in the letter: &amp;quot;It is important to note that the end of this particular scheme does not diminish in anyway the government&amp;#039;s commitment to supporting those looking to get on the housing ladder, including through the Help To Buy: ISA, and Help To Buy equity loan schemes.&amp;quot; This is true: while the loan scheme is probably less popular due to the fact that you already need to be able to get yourself a mortgage (the loan is labelled as &amp;#039;a second charge&amp;#039;), it DOES still exist.     And the Help to Buy ISA, which sees the government add 25% to your total savings (a maximum of \u00A33,000 on savings of \u00A312,000) are also sticking around. Still, without the government guaranteeing an extra 15% of a property&amp;#039;s value to a mortgage lender - on top of our own 5% - it&amp;#039;s going to be another huge uphill battle for first-time buyers come 2017. Follow Charlotte on Twitter.  Like this? Come and check us out on Snapchat Discover.  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.cosmopolitan.co.uk/reports/news/a46261/government-ending-help-to-buy-mortgage-scheme/>