A family have moved into their dream home in Ashby to help meet their growing needs after taking advantage of the Government's Help to Buy initiative.

The Wevill family, who have bought a new home at Bellway's Ashtree Gardens development, are among the more than 130,000 buyers nationally who have used the Government-backed scheme since its launch in 2013.

Help to Buy enables purchasers to buy a new-build home with a five per cent deposit and a 75 per cent mortgage. The remaining 20 per cent is provided in the form of an equity loan from the Government, which is interest-free for the first five years of home ownership.

The Wevill family used the Help to Buy scheme to move to their new home at Ashtree Gardens.

Michael Wevill, who moved into the new home with wife Melanie and their two children in June, said the scheme had enabled the family to buy a home with enough space for the future, in the location they wanted.

He said: "We'd previously owned a house in Woodville but sold up and moved into rented accommodation in Ashby about three years ago, as most of our friends and social life were here.

"Help to Buy meant we could afford a much bigger house than we could have otherwise done with the deposit we'd saved up. It's worked out well for us and we now won't have to move for a long time.

"We really like the layout of this house. The two children both have double bedrooms of roughly an equal size, for example, so we're future proofing ourselves. We're not going to struggle for space here."

The children both attend a local primary school, and Mr Wevill said schooling was a big consideration when the family made the move to Ashby. Since settling into their new-build home, the Wevills said they have also come to appreciate the family feel of Ashtree Gardens.

Mr Wevill said: "There are a couple of families who have moved in with children of a similar age to ours. We've got a little community here which is quite nice because the kids are the same age and they can play together. When it snowed they were all outside playing and they're often in each other's houses."

Bellway is building a range of two to five-bedroom homes at Ashtree Gardens, off Burton Road, and more information is available at www.bellway.co.uk.

What is Help to Buy?

The government's Help to Buy scheme was introduced in 2013 and has helped thousands of people around the country buy a new property.

The scheme enables anyone, both first-time buyers and existing owners, to put down a deposit of just five per cent for a new home through a government equity loan providing access to more affordable mortgage rates.

Help to Buy works by reducing the amount of money buyers have to pay. For example, someone using the scheme could put down a deposit of £10,000 for a house costing £200,000. £40,000 would be covered by the government as an equity loan along with a £150,000 mortgage.