House builders have robustly defended Help to Buy amid reports that the Government is considering the future of the taxpayer-funded initiative.

The scheme, which provides a 20% Government loan on top of a buyer’s 5% deposit on a new-build, is due to end in 2021, but there are conflicting reports that officials are believed to be considering an extension – or want to can it.

A new report by the Home Builders Federation (HBF) has rushed to the defence of the scheme, which has helped boost sales and profits for developers.

The report claims the scheme, launched in 2013, has helped support new-build transactions as the mainstream market slows, and has also boosted jobs in the sector.

The 48,000 homes sold through Help to Buy last year helped sustain an estimated 150,000 jobs, according to the report.

On an annual basis, the additional house building activity is estimated to have provided 20,000 affordable homes, £1bn in tax receipts and contributed £73m towards education through Section 106 agreements that support local infrastructure – enough to provide up to 34,000 classroom spaces, the HBF said.

The report aimed to rebuff claims that Help to Buy supports wealthy households.

Government Help to Buy figures last month showed that 10% of buyers had annual incomes of more than £80,000, but HBF said the median income of a household purchasing through the scheme in 2017 was £49,000, while users were mostly first-time buyers.

In the first five years of the scheme’s operation, up to the end of March, 136,657 first-time buyer households had purchased a new-build home with support from a Help to Buy equity loan, representing more than four in five of all completions up to that point, HBF said.

The HBF also tackled criticism that Help to Buy was pushing up prices across the market, showing that new-build prices have always been higher than secondhand homes.

In the decade preceding September 2017, new-build prices had risen by 26% while existing property values increased by 23%. Since the introduction of Help to Buy in 2013, new-build prices have, on average, increased by 38%, compared with a 35% increase in existing properties, the report claims.

Buyers have also benefited from bigger new-builds, with more of the sector now building houses rather than flats, the HBF said.

Stewart Baseley, executive chairman of the HBF, said: “It is quite clear that the Help to Buy scheme has been an unmitigated success and has delivered handsomely on all its objectives.

“It has enabled hundreds of thousands of people to realise their dream of owning a home, the vast majority of whom are first-time buyers on average incomes. It has led to an unprecedented increase in house building activity, created tens of thousands of jobs and boosted local economies the length and breadth of the country.

“The Government should celebrate its success and use the hard evidence now available to rebut the claims of its critics.

“As we look to tackle our acute housing crisis and deliver on the Prime Minister’s target to build 300,000 homes per year, the scheme has a key part to play. Government should reflect on the huge impact the scheme is having on individuals keen to realise their dreams of home ownership, on housing supply and on the wider economy.

“House builders continue to invest in the land, materials and people needed to deliver further increases in supply, confident in the demand Help to Buy is underpinning.

“Certainty moving forward is now required to enable the increases in housing supply, and the associated social and economic benefits, to continue.”