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The Homes and Communities Agency is moving cash out of regions that have under-spent their affordable housing allocations in a bid to get its budget spent before the financial year end.

Chief executive Sir Bob Kerslake confirmed the agency was looking to re-allocate some funds to regions that were better able to spend them.

But he added that the ‘general principle’ was that if a region lost part of its budget one year, the money would be returned the subsequent year.

The juggling act is necessary because if the HCA has not spent its entire budget by 31 March it could lose the unspent funds.

However, in the past year the government brought forward £975 million of the 2010/11 budget to this year and 2009/10, in response to the housing crisis.

In doing so, it gave the HCA ‘some flexibility’ about whether it spent the extra cash in this year or the next, Sir Bob explained.

‘Allowing for that flexibility, we are reasonably confident we will deliver our budget,’ he told Inside Housing.