A further £30 million has been allocated to the Help to Buy Scotland fund, after it ran out earlier this year.

Nicola Sturgeon, the new First Minister of Scotland, announced a wide-range of policies and bills in her first Programme for Government. This included a boost to the funds allocated to the Help to Buy (Scotland) scheme.

However, it is not simply a direct boost in available funds, the Scottish government website says that the £30 million will work towards “spreading the benefits of Help to Buy to smaller developers.”

The money will be made available for new-build properties on small developments, but only on those properties which have a completion date between 01 April 2014 and 31 March 2016.

Further details will be launched “in due time” regarding the application process and qualifying criteria.

However, this can only be good news for first time buyers who missed out on previous runs of the scheme, which ran out of funds very quickly. It also should give a positive boost to small developers who may be struggling, especially if a lot of the previous funds were used up by larger building firms.

After the success that Help to Buy saw in Scotland previously, there is definitely a need for schemes that can make housing more accessible, so it is good to see that the government has not let the scheme become a thing of the past.