In just over a month the curtain will come down on the stamp duty holiday which has spared thousands of first time buyers from paying a tax on their new homes.

The announcement in the Autumn Statement – a sort of mini Budget outlined in November each year – that the initiative was to be consigned to history was met with regret from a number of providers and associations.

In the announcement, the Government said that ‘the stamp duty land tax relief for first time buyers has been ineffective in increasing the number of first time buyers entering the market’.

But the accuracy of that assertion has been called into question by new figures.

HSBC has revealed that from the beginning of the stamp duty holiday on 24 March 2010 to the end of last year, 286,299 first-time buyers bought a stamp duty free property, with 159,872 benefiting from the stamp duty holiday by buying their first home priced between £125,000 and £250,000.

There has also been evidence of a spike in first time buyer numbers in the weeks leading up to the end of the holiday.

Some 18,700 home loans were advanced to first-time buyers during December, with figures expected to show similar rises in the months until the holiday ends.

Now the stats obviously don’t show how many buyers would have bought a property anyway.

But given estimated combined savings of £319 million and the rush to complete before the end of the holiday, we can make an educated guess that many buyers have seen the stamp duty holiday as the perfect opportunity to get on the first rung of the property ladder.

The figures have evoked a strong reaction, with the National Association of Estate Agents questioning the Government’s verdict that the initiative has not been successful.

“The Government should reverse its stubborn approach to stamp duty, and reintroduce the exception for first time buyers,” said the association.

But it seems that the calls to extend the programme or implement it indefinitely are to fall on deaf ears.

But what of the Government’s own scheme to help first-time-buyers?

The FirstBuy Scheme was introduced last year and offers a chance for buyers with only a small deposit to get at mortgage of 75% loan-to-value, with an equity loan from house builders and the Government making up the shortfall.

As the Government has described the stamp duty holiday as ineffective in enticing first time buyers, how many would you expect to be helped by the FirstBuy scheme? 50,000? 100,000?

Not exactly; over two years, the FirstBuy scheme is predicted to enable 10,000 first time buyers secure a home – around 5,000 a year.

When you consider that the Council of Mortgage Lenders has forecast a total of 825,000 mortgage approvals for 2012 alone, and that almost 19,000 first time buyer mortgages were approved in December alone, that doesn’t seem that much – maybe even ineffective?

And consider that the scheme is only available on new build homes, meaning the money does not really benefit the wider housing market; buying homes that then enable people to become second steppers will not be possible, for example.

On unveiling the FirstBuy scheme, Grant Shapps, the Housing Minister said the Government was ‘determined to pull out all the stops to help those who want to take their first steps onto the property ladder.’

Consigning a scheme that enabled buyers to pay less money to buy their first home to the dustbin of history – while introducing an initiative that will only help a minimal number of people – does little to inspire confidence in the accuracy of that pledge.