The government has admitted that Michael Gove’s department has handed almost £2bn of housing cash back to the Treasury after failing to spend the funding in the 2022/23 financial year.

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communiities confirmed a report in the Guardian that said it had underspent by £1.9bn and was handing the money back to the chancellor, with the cash including £255m of affordable housing funding given back to the Treasury and £1.2bn of Help to Buy money.

However, DLUHC officials said much of the funding will be re-profiled to be spent in later years, and that the government’s overall commitment to funding affordable housing remains the same.

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