A FLAGSHIP £200m mortgage rescue scheme has failed to help a single family facing repossession in the region, the Government has admitted.

The initiative, announced last autumn, was intended to allow recession-hit homeowners to switch to becoming housing association tenants at an affordable rent.

Alternatively, the association would buy a share in the home – enabling some of the mortgage to be paid off – or provide a bridging loan to allow reduced payments.

But figures released to MPs reveal that no one has been helped in the North-East or Yorkshire since its launch in January.

Across England, only one family in the East Midlands has been rescued.

The revelation will add to growing criticism that the Government has announced a blizzard of help measures, only to fail to follow them through.

A second mortgage help scheme – allowing a slice of mortgage repayments to be deferred for two years – has also run into trouble.

It started three months late, but several High Street lenders refused to sign up for fear of lawsuits for mis-selling if house prices continue to fall.

Sarah Teather, the Liberal Democrat housing spokeswoman, said: “This is an appalling failure by a Government more interested in headline-grabbing than in helping families through the economic crisis.”

For the Tories, Grant Shapps said the scheme was on course to help only eight families over its two-year life span – instead of the promised 6,000.

The figures show that 134 North-East families and 527 in Yorkshire approached their councils with mortgage difficulties over the first three months of the year.

But, of those homeowners, only nine in the North-East and 110 in Yorkshire applied to the mortgage rescue scheme – and none was approved.

Even if the 6,000 target is hit over two years, it would help as few as 300 families in the region, compared with an annual total of more than 15,000 mortgage repossession orders.

A spokesman for the Department of Communities and Logal Government insisted the scheme had enjoyed a “successful start” and said a further 450 applications were being considered.