Once again, the has splashed its controversial way across the news, with the latest wave of people speaking out both for and against it. Chief among these is Ed Balls, once again letting his concerns for the scheme known.

“You can’t, as Chancellor, wash your hands of responsibility for balancing the housing market” he said in an interview with the Financial Times. Balls said George Osborne needs to reign in his pet mortgage scheme and put his efforts into building new towns and more social housing to try and meet the demand of new housing and to bring down the price.

Many economists seem to agree with Balls, including some of Osborne’s predecessors. However a feature piece in the Telegraph argues a little differently, saying that it is only the second prong of the Help to Buy scheme that is likely to damage the housing market.

The first part of Help to Buy has been stimulating the building of houses, according to the article, whereas the second part, the Mortgage Guarantee scheme, “simply applies the heat of increased, subsidised credit to the existing, inadequate stock.”

Luckily the Help to Buy Mortgage Guarantee is still set to run out in 2016, whereas the Help to Buy Equity Loan has been extended until 2020.

It doesn’t look like either part of the Help to Buy scheme are going to be ended any time soon, as Osborne has stuck to it so far and so stubbornly. Some cynics have even suggested they are being held in place to create goodwill and a cheaper housing market in the run up to the next election. Whether this has any truth to it or not the schemes seem to be here to stay for now.