Allen & Overy won the mandate to advise HM Treasury on the launch of its £12bn Help to Buy scheme.

Capital markets partner Geoff Fuller led the magic circle firm's team on the Government's flagship mortgage guarantee programme. Securitisation partner Angela Clist, data protection partner Jane Finlayson-Brown, IP partner Colleen Keck, insurance partner Philip Jarvis and financial service partner Bob Penn also advised on the launch.

Fuller has previously advised on other recent guarantee programmes. He acted for HMT on the £20bn National Loan Guarantee Scheme, which chancellor George Osborne launched in 2012 to encourage lending to small businesses, and on the Infrastructure UK Guarantee Scheme of the same year, which made £40bn of guarantees available for key infrastructure projects.

Through Help to Buy, which the Government hopes will stimulate the ailing housing market, prospective home owners can apply for mortgages on homes valued up to £600,000 with deposits as low as 5% the property's value. The Government, in turn, will provide guarantees to lenders of up to 15%.

RBS, NatWest and Halifax are among a clutch of banks to have already begun offering mortgages through the three-year scheme, with others, including HSBC and Virgin Money, expected to join in the coming months.

Critics of Help to Buy have warned that the scheme could distort the housing market, while other have said that focussing on demand will not address the continuing shortage of new homes in the UK.