A £300m council-led regeneration scheme threatened when Whitehall commandeered the site for asylum accommodation could now go ahead after the plan was scaled down.

West Lindsey DC could rescue the housing, retail and education-based regeneration project earmarked for the former RAF Scampton airbase in Lincolnshire after the Home Office announced it would reduce the planned number of asylum seekers on the site from 2,000 to 800.