The film It's A Wonderful Life, starring James Stewart as a kindly but down-on-his-luck mortgage provider on Christmas Eve, is a perennial favourite. Now the Cambridge Building Society is trying to harness that spirit, which has made the tear-jerker one of the best-loved seasonal movies since it was first shown in 1946.

Young couple Sophie Rhead and Jamie Bladen hope their dream of living in a home of their own with their four-month-old daughter Darcie has moved closer after their lives were changed by an innovative scheme from the Cambridge.

Like millions of other young couples, they were struggling to save enough for a deposit to buy a house.

Now, after being selected for the scheme, they are renting a property from the Cambridge. However, unlike with a conventional landlord, the building society will give them back a large chunk of their rent to help them get on the housing ladder.

Thanks to this, the pair are now looking at three to four-bedroom houses, instead of tiny flats, and hope to have a mortgage by next Christmas. 'It sounds cliched but it has changed our lives,' says Sophie, 22.

The scheme, called Rent To Home, was set up in 2019 and currently covers just seven properties in Cambridgeshire and West Suffolk. However, the mutual is looking to expand it to 25 properties over the next three years and says it will be happy to team up with the Government or other lenders to help create similar schemes.

Its aim is to help first-time buyers who can afford to rent, but don't have access to the Bank of Mum and Dad for a downpayment on a home loan. Applicants are selected by a ballot, after which they move into a newly-refurbished property for between one and three years.

Once they are ready to buy a home, 70 per cent of the rent they have paid will be returned to them to help towards the deposit, provided they take out a mortgage with the Cambridge.

Prospective buyers must fulfil a set of criteria including connections to the area, such as living or working locally. They must also be on a 'modest income'.

Couples who apply must be earning between £36,000 and £80,000 a year between them. The upper annual income limit for sole applicants is £60,000.

The building society set up the scheme to address the problem of affordability in an area with some of the highest house prices in the country.

'As far as we're aware it is unique,' says Carole Charter, chief commercial officer at the Cambridge. The scheme typically attracts 20 applicants for each place. So far it has rented out homes to 12 people. Nine are still renting and three have gone on to buy their own home.

'It's part of us giving back to the community that we all live and work in,' says Charter. 'It's part of our purpose, part of what we do.' There was one big problem when launching the scheme.

'People thought it was too good to be true. They were looking for the catch. We took a lot of time to explain to them that there was no catch,' says Charter.

'There's nothing better than seeing and hearing from the tenants. We have had them tell us that this scheme has changed their life.'

She says the lender would be 'more than happy' to work with other lenders or the Government to create similar schemes.

Sophie and Jamie, 24, were each living with their parents before they found out about the scheme.

'We wanted our own space,' said Sophie, an administrator at a commercial property firm who is on maternity leave, adding 'the prices around Cambridge are just crazy money'. They were astounded to be selected for the scheme.

'We never win anything, we're not those people,' says Jamie, who works for British Gas. Sophie says: 'It was kind of a movie moment.'

Within a month they had moved into their rented home in Northstowe, a town eight miles outside Cambridge. The couple hope that by next Christmas they will be at the stage of having put in an offer on a new property.

Marriage is 'definitely on the horizon'. For now they are enjoying their first festive season as a family. Sophie says: 'Putting up the Christmas tree the three of us was just so special.

'We've always wanted to have a little family with a dog with a nice little garden and that feels more in reach now.'