A financial expert has called for the Help to Buy scheme to end in London, as house prices have reached an “absurd” level.

Nigel Wilson, chief executive of the insurance and investment giant Legal and General, told the Sunday Telegraph that prices were at danger of becoming so high that only the most affluent would be able to afford property in the capital and the south-east.

“[The government] should stop stoking up demand; there is already lots of demand and this will create a bubble for the future. There is a UK obsession with housing and our growth is excessively dependent on it,” he said.

Mr Wilson added that putting an end to the scheme would prevent the north-south divide from becoming even greater and that young people were being encouraged into “over-leveraged” situations. 

The Help to Buy scheme has been praised for rejuvenating the housing market, but with property prices having risen by 8.4 per cent last year, Mr Wilson is one of a growing number who are calling for the scheme to be altered or stopped altogether to prevent a housing bubble.