As the summer finally brings warmer weather to Kent, the red-hot debate over Britain’s soaring house prices shows no signs of cooling down.

Nationwide Building Society has just reported that UK property values have reached a new all-time high in cash terms, at £186,512 on average, leaping 11.1% in the space of only 12 months.

Similarly, another house price survey, run by Halifax, found that property values jumped by 3.9% month-on-month in May – the biggest monthly jump they’ve seen since 2002.

Figures like these had already been stoking speculation that steps were needed to take some steam out of the housing market.

But now the government has revealed plans to beef up the Bank of England’s powers to let them rein in risky mortgage lending, if it deems it necessary.

Kent Reliance chief executive Andy Golding said: “There’s a high possibility there could be some constraint on loan-to-value or affordability calculations for larger loans, which targets London and the South East.

“I don’t think that’s a problem. If you’re borrowing a couple of million pounds and have the income to pay that back, then having that on a high loan-to-value ratio is a high-risk transaction.

“We have got to stop the top end of the market running away faster than the rest because the market is only ever as good as the components in the chain.

“You need an active first-time-buyer market, which is warming up but it’s still not enough. You need an active house-building market to keep track with population growth and you need that knock-on effect to work its way up the chain.”

Chancellor George Osborne, who announced the measures, has emphasised that though the housing market doesn’t pose an immediate threat to financial stability now, it’s important to act to insure against any repeat of boom and bust.

Under the plans, the Bank will be handed powerful new tools to cap the size of mortgage loans as a share of the borrower’s income or the value of the house – including mortgages offered under the government’s Help to Buy scheme.

Help to Buy has had its critics from the start, and recently even the International Monetary Fund (IMF) urged ministers to consider an early end to the scheme. But the government insists it’s “working as intended”, by helping lower income families and first-time buyers onto the housing ladder.

So who is right? What impact is Help to Buy really having on the housing market? And would curbing it really help calm down prices in the most over-heated areas?

Well, those against the scheme argue it’s pushing up prices by increasing the demand for homes at a time when supply is already fairly tight.

But others argue that calls to overhaul Help to Buy are a red herring. They say curbing the scheme would have no impact on the volume of wealthy cash buyers and overseas investors who are fuelling demand by snapping up properties in London, where the market is at its most competitive.