Chair of the communities and local government select committee Clive Betts has accused ministers of sitting on billions of pounds of cash intended to fund key housing programmes.

Mr Betts comments follow an exchange of letters with communities secretary, Eric Pickles in which the committee chair asked a set of detailed questions concerning the Government's supplementary estimated figures.

In his response, Mr Pickles explained how a £1.17bn switch capital expenditure for the Department for Communities and Local Government's communities estimate would support capital funding for Regional Growth Fund programmes and investment in Enterprise Zones.