First-time buyers are 2.2m behind where they should be given demographic trends – despite significant government investment in home ownership.

A new report from the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association suggests that interventions in the housing market are missing the mark.

However, for political reasons, schemes such as Help to Buy ISA are likely to remain priorities for the new government in the post-Brexit political environment.

The report finds that government investment in the 15 different schemes currently on offer, is yet to have the desired effect of raising home ownership levels.

However, says the report, the schemes are not just about boosting home ownership but increasing the demographic that has traditionally voted for the Conservatives.

At the 2015 General Election, 46% of outright owners and 39% of mortgaged home owners voted Conservative against 28% of private tenants and 18% of social tenants, meaning home owners remain a vital demographic for the Conservatives.

This approach of extending support to help first timers get on the property ladder is partly being funded by the Conservatives’ second major intervention in the housing market, the introduction of the Stamp Duty surcharge on buy-to-let and second home purchases.

The Exchequer is set to raise around £1.7bn a year from the surcharge, which will help offset the annual investment in home ownership of some £6.6bn

The report says that so far some 90,000 new home sales have been made under the Help to Buy equity loan, NewBuy and FirstBuy schemes and a further 74,000 mortgages have been completed with the support of the Help to Buy mortgage guarantee scheme.

Nevertheless, it says the Government has failed to reverse the decline in home ownership.

Peter Williams, IMLA executive director, said: “This is partly because saving for a deposit and accessing high loan to value mortgages remain on-going challenges for first-time buyers.

“Mortgage repayments are cheaper than ever but many first timers simply don’t qualify for a mortgage as they can’t stump up the starting sum.”

He said the Government has moved from an overall focus on supply regardless of tenure to supply built around home ownership.

He said this risks making a bad situation worse and the latest move to control the rental market by taxing landlords harder is an own goal by the Government.

“It is likely these costs will simply be passed onto tenants as landlords look for other ways to maintain their profits, making the challenge of saving for a deposit an even harder struggle and it will reduce the flow of investment into new homes for rent,” said Williams.

“There is a longer-term risk too that it has created a more volatile political environment in the housing market which may impact on owners and investors. The current political attitudes to the private rental sector are ill-focused and short-sighted.”

The IMLA report argues that a more effective way to stimulate home ownership would be a refocus on the rules surrounding mortgage availability.