FT – Hunt pulls £200m from councils after clawing back house sale funds

The chancellor’s “squeeze” on local councils leads the Financial Times, as the paper reports Jeremy Hunt has “wound down” a scheme providing millions of pounds for social housing. Also featured on the front is a striking image of bundles of supplies being dropped into Gaza, as the US plans an “emergency mission” to set up a port on the coast to help supply people living there with humanitarian aid.

Jeremy Hunt has wound down a scheme that delivered an extra £200mn a year for social housing in England, in a controversial move that will further squeeze the finances of cash-strapped local councils.

The chancellor’s decision to end a policy of letting local authorities keep 100 per cent of the revenues from sales of council homes was taken as part of the deliberations for his Budget on Wednesday.

Local government and Whitehall insiders said the change was made despite representations from the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to extend the two-year policy that was due to expire in April.

Whitehall insiders said internal calculations submitted to the Treasury showed that the policy delivered £180mn-£200mn a year to local housing budgets.

Read the full story on the Financial Times