THE Government has been told it could help thousands more families a year get a foot on the property ladder.

A report from the National Audit Office said the government needs to improve the efficiency of its shared ownership home buying schemes.

Only 11,000 households were helped by the Homebuy scheme in 2004-05, even though 60,000 applied.

The scheme aims to help council tenants, housing association tenants and key workers buy part of their own homes.