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

The department has confirmed a report in the Guardian that the department had underspent by 拢1.9bn and was handing the money back to the chancellor, with the cash including 拢255m of affordable housing funding given back to the Treasury and 拢1.2bn of Help to Buy money.

However, officials at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) said much of the funding will be re-profiled to be spent in later years, and that the government鈥檚 overall commitment to funding affordable housing remains the same.

According to freedom of information requests seen by the Guardian, and confirmed by DLUHC to Housing Today, the department underspent by more than 拢600m on the affordable housing programme in the year and was forced to hand 拢255m back to the Treasury, with 拢363m being 鈥渞e-profiled鈥� for later years.

In addition, the paper reported it had handed back 拢245m of funding for building safety repairs and 拢1.2bn of money allocated for Help to Buy. As the Help to Buy scheme has now closed, the money cannot be re-profiled to be spent at a later date and is now lost to the department.

A provided for the levelling up, housing and communities select committee said the affordable housing underspend happened as 鈥渆conomic volatility led developers to slow or pause work鈥�.

That submission had also revealed the department had underspent in other key capital programmes related to housing, including the Housing Infrastructure Fund, the Brownfield Land Fund, Brownfield Infrastructure Fund and First Homes scheme. However, a 鈥渇ull refresh鈥� of the Housing Infrastructure Fund was being developed.

The news comes as the government last month announced an overhaul to the Affordable Homes Programme rules after revealing that Homes England for the 2016-23 programme.

The Labour Party jumped on the latest revelations, with shadow housing secretary Lisa Nandy accusing the government of having 鈥渟imply given up鈥� on trying to tackle the housing crisis.

She told the newspaper: 鈥淣ot content with slashing housebuilding by scrapping housing targets, stalling on renters鈥� reform or rowing back on their promises to leaseholders, ministers are either too incompetent or too out-of-touch to consider it a priority to fix dangerous buildings or build new affordable homes in the middle of a housing crisis.鈥�

A DLUHC spokesperson said: 鈥淭hese are multi-year funding programmes that are being spent flexibly 鈥� meaning some money can be moved into future years depending on demand and the wider economic climate.

鈥淲e have a strong record on housebuilding 鈥� with more than 2 million homes delivered since 2010. Our target of delivering 300,000 homes per year remains and we are fully committed to funding and delivering our programmes that help us meet that target, including the 拢11.5bn Affordable Homes Programme.鈥�

Officials said that 拢700m of Affordable Homes Programme funding is being moved to later years within the current spending review period to 2024/25, with a further 拢500m having been moved into funding the construction of homes in the next spending review period.

Joshua Bond, founder and managing director of Bond Land, said: 鈥淭oday鈥檚 revelations repeat the message that housing is simply not a priority for this government.

鈥淚t is the latest blow to housing developers following scrapped housing targets and a failure to tackle a planning system that鈥檚 not fit for the modern age head on. Projects simply won鈥檛 get built without central government support for the sector and, in particular, freeing up high-quality land for development.鈥�