Key workers in Oxfordshire have welcomed a £690m Government scheme to help healthworkers, teachers, police, probation and prison staff get on the property ladder.

The scheme, announced on March 23, aims to help more key workers get their own home, particularly in the South East. The region will get a portion of the national £690m pot, and individuals will be invited to apply for a loan of up to £50,000.

The scheme aims to help keep staff who have vital skills in education and health in areas like Oxfordshire, where property prices are high.

It will build on the Starter Home initiative, which was started in 2001 and will have helped more than 9,000 key workers buy their own homes by the end of this month.

The Oxford Mail has previously reported how the high cost of housing has led to recruitment and retention problems for schools, hospitals and Thames Valley Police.

Debbie Fiske, 35, a teacher at Carswell Community Primary School, Abingdon, has just bought a house in the town using the existing scheme.

She said: "Without this, I wouldn't have been able to buy a property. A housing association gave me a quarter of the value of the property, and I don't have to pay it back until I sell it."

Police officers can apply for help through the Government initative and through Thames Valley Police's own scheme.

Thames Valley Police Federation chairman Insp Martin Elliott said 80 per cent of the force's police had less than two years experience because officers moved on to areas where housing was cheaper.

He said: "Anything that helps people put down roots and stay in the Thames Valley has to be welcomed. Otherwise we are never going to break the vicious cycle of experienced officers moving away."