A "disgraceful" £4m cut to Croydon Council's funding for looking after hundreds of child asylum seekers could soon be reversed, according to the leader of the council.

Last September it emerged that the Home Office was slashing its contribution to the council's budget for caring for young refugees by a fifth, despite the growing humanitarian migration crisis stretching from Syria across the Mediterranean.

Following a cross-party outcry over the cuts from Croydon councillors and MPs, immigration minister James Brokenshire met with council leader Tony Newman in October to discuss the concerns over funding.

Although little progress appears to have been made since then, yesterday Coun Newman claimed the Home Office had committed to at least a partial reversal of the "disgraceful" funding cut.

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He said: "The latest is a lot of warm words and agreement perhaps of somewhere between £3m and £3.5m is coming back. I think that's the latest position in terms of categorical agreement.

"The full amount we're told may yet come back."

Signalling his frustration with the protracted Home Office negotiations, Coun Newman said confirmation of the restored funding “seems to be lost in the post".

He also decried the effect that central Government cuts had had on the council's budget.

He said: "We've had to deal with this in-year - that's never happened before."

Croydon is home to the only Home Office asylum-seeker screening unit in the country, and is one of three 'gateway' councils - along with Hillingdon and Kent - that have the highest population of asylum-seekers.

The Government pays three three councils a sum of money for each day an unaccompanied young person is in their care.

In September the money Croydon council receives, which varies depending on the child's age, was cut from between £114 and £137.50 per day for each child to between £91 and £114.

The council currently looks after 425 child asylum-seekers.

A Home Office spokesman said there had been "regular correspondence" with Croydon Council about the concerns over reduced funding.

But he declined to comment on the figures quoted by Coun Newman while "discussions are ongoing".

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