PERSIMMON says the Scottish government-backed MI New Home scheme is only contributing to a small number of housing transactions.

The scheme, which offers 95% mortgages on new homes up to the value of £250,000, was launched last year after consultation with the home building industry.

However Persimmon believes the Bank of England's Funding for Lending scheme – which incentivises banks and building societies to lend more by offering them discounted loans – is helping to improve the availability and affordability of mortgages more across the UK.

The company said it was supporting potential purchasers in Scotland with part exchange and shared equity deals it was funding itself.

Jeff Fairburn, chief executive, said: "We are not seeing any great volumes coming through [Mii New Home]. The market is still pretty fragile but we are encouraged by the improvements in confidence in the market place, the mortgages that are available and the ability of people to actually buy."

The UK Government's Help to Buy shared equity scheme, applicable in England and which lends buyers 20% of the value of a new home worth up to £600,000 interest-free for five years, was said to have had a strong impact with 1124 Persimmon reservations made through the initiative since its launch in April.

Visitors to the company's sites were running 13% ahead of 2012 while cancellation rates were down from 18% to 16%. Although Persimmon's average house prices across the UK were up from £171,206 to £179,200 Mr Fairburn attributed that to more larger homes being sold rather than any sustained increase in underlying prices.

He said: "It is more about the mix of homes we have got and people trading up through the market. It is a pretty similar story across the UK.

"In Scotland prices have gone up but we have a number of Charles Church schemes which are at the upper end."

In a trading update ahead of half year results to the end of June legal completions were said to be up from 4712 to 5022.

That meant total revenue is predicted to be up around 12% from £806.7 million to £900m.

The value of forward sales increased 19% from £774m to £920m with private sales revenue said to be 24% ahead and housing association income growing by 10%.

Persimmon, which has its headquarters in York, confirmed it expects to maintain around 385 active sites across 2013.

It spent £240m acquiring 7300 new plots of land during the half year bringing its total to 70,500 consented plots.

Underlying operating margins were said to have improved from 12.1% to 15% due to cheaper land prices and more efficient building methods.

Mr Fairburn said Persimmon is taking on 100 trade apprentices across the year and would continue to invest in skills. He said: "Taking on apprentices is a sign the industry is getting back to where it needs to be."

Keith Bowman, analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown Stockbrokers, said: "As expected, the government's newly introduced Help to Buy scheme has added further fuel to already historically low interest rates.

"Management again pointed to an improvement in the availability of mortgage credit and a gradual reduction in mortgage interest costs supported by the Government's Funding for Lending Scheme, while aided by the use of lower cost land, the group's underlying operating margin had swelled by nearly 3%.

"In all, and hugely underpinned by government and Bank of England initiatives, Persimmon and the housebuilding industry continue to make progress."

Persimmon's shares ended the day down 16p, or 1.29%, at 1224p.