Fewer than one per cent of nurses and teachers will be awarded £10,000 loans from the Government to help them get onto the property ladder.

Unions have dubbed the Government's starter home initiative as little more than a gimmick, which will not help the hundreds of the county's key workers who need help buying homes.

The Department of Transport, Local Government and Regions provided £20m to help 2,000 public sector staff in high-cost areas in the form of equity loans, which can be used as mortgage deposits.

Although Oxfordshire has one of the most expensive property markets, with the average house price at £180,444, it has only been awarded £380,000 of the cash.

Only 10 county nurses out of more than 2,000 and 28 teachers out of 4,966 will benefit.

Other regions skirting London have been given more money -- even where houses are cheaper. In Sussex, where the average house costs £165,508, 113 key workers will benefit.

Royal College of Nursing convenor Debbie Pearman said: "It's good that we've got some money, but it's not going to make a huge difference to retention at Oxfordshire hospitals.

"Nurses can't afford to buy houses here and I don't think this is a very fair allocation."

The secretary of the Oxfordshire association of the National Union of Teachers, Mark Forder, said: "Although we welcome this tiny amount, it is not enough. It's such a small amount that very few are going to notice it at all.

"It's more in the nature of a gimmick, rather than addressing something that is a very serious need."

A DTLR spokesman said Oxfordshire's small amount reflected the fact that the county's key workers had taken the lion's share of a previous £230m handout last September.