It appears as though people who are looking to remortgage their home are unlikely to be helped by the government’s Help to Buy scheme.

The Financial Times reports that both banks that are offering 95 per cent mortgages through the scheme at the moment – Halifax and Royal Bank of Scotland – have limited their deals purely to those who are buying a new home.

This is despite the fact that the Treasury has stipulated that the Help to Buy initiative can be used by people looking to refinance, as well as those looking to move into a new home completely.

The idea behind it was so that borrowers who were suffering from a lack of equity were not effectively stuck in the home they had already bought.

Many of them are locked into expensive variable rates following the aftermath of the housing market crash.

However, banks are not being forced to offer this option to customers and so it seems like people in this situation may still find their choices limited when it comes to what move to make next.