The chair of house building firm Persimmon has resigned over his role in orchestrating a £100m-plus bonus for the company’s chief executive.

According to a report in The Guardian, Nicholas Wrigley, the company’s chair and a former banker, said he regretted not capping the company’s bonus scheme and was leaving “in recognition of this omission”. The scheme, believed to be Britain’s most generous ever bonus payout, will give more than £500m to 150 senior staff, including the award to the chief executive, Jeff Fairburn. Wrigley had put pressure on Fairburn to donate some of his bonus to charity, although Persimmon declined to comment.

The payouts, in company shares that can then be cashed in, are linked to the FTSE 100’s dividend payments and stock market performance, which has been significantly boosted by the help-to-buy scheme. Under help to buy, the Treasury provides a loan worth 20% of the value of a property, although the buyer must also provide a 5% deposit from their own funds.

The programme has provided a significant boost to property developers’ sales since George Osborne introduced it in 2013. Persimmon’s share price has more than doubled since help to buy launched in April 2013. About half of Persimmon homes sold last year were to help-to-buy recipients, meaning government money helped finance the sales.

Fairburn is due to collect the first £50m worth of bonus shares on 31 December. The scheme, which is based on the level of dividend returned to shareholders, was meant to take 10 years to pay out, but the company has accelerated dividend payments. This means Fairburn, other executives and more than 100 middle managers are likely to collect all of the bonus shares by July 2018, far ahead of the 2021 schedule. Fairburn’s tranche of shares was worth £128m based on Friday night’s closing share price, but he is likely to take home about £110m once he has paid the option prices on the shares.

John Hunter, the chair of the UK Shareholder Association, which represents small investors, said the bonus scheme was “completely ridiculous” and was based solely on the dividend payments. He said: “Any bloody fool can pay dividends – it’s just paying them their own money. The scheme is doing the opposite of what it is meant to do – incentivise performance and retention. How does this incentivise people when they’re all sitting on fortunes? If you’re a manager and you’re getting millions you would retire on the spot.”

A Home Office policy to deport rough sleepers from countries in the European Economic Area (EEA) has been ruled unlawful by the high court.

Since 2016 the Home Office has designated rough sleeping as an abuse of EU free movement rights in its administrative removal policy. However, the court ruled that the Home Office’s position was contrary to EU law. It also found the policy was discriminatory and amounted to an unlawful systematic verification of the EEA nationals’ rights to reside.

The Home Office may now face claims for unlawful detention where it has detained individuals on the basis of its policy. Those who have been removed from the UK and face a 12-month re-entry ban may also be entitled to have that ban lifted and be readmitted to the UK. The evidence showed that the initial questioning and verification was part of a blanket policy, which only occurred because, under the terms of the policy, EEA nationals rough sleeping were presumed to be abusing their rights of residence.

A spokesman said: “In reality, many homeless people targeted by the Home Office have fallen on hard times and are working but unable to afford accommodation. The numbers of European nationals sleeping rough have been steadily increasing since 2010. But rather than making substantial or systematic attempts to provide solutions to homelessness through accommodation and employment support, local and national authorities have opted to add enforcement measures to austerity policies. We hope this decision will put an end to a social policy which used imprisonment and deportation as solutions to eradicate homelessness.”

The Public Interest Law Unit welcomed the judgment, saying: “We are delighted that the court has been willing to protect the rights of a vulnerable group of workers who have been stigmatised both by the authorities and by sections of the media. Experience shows that if we stand by and allow a marginalised group to be victimised others can expect the same treatment later. Homelessness cannot be dealt with humanely by detaining or forcibly removing homeless people. This practice has been found unlawful and must immediately cease.”

The European commission has said EU member states have no right to deport EU citizens for being homeless and said EU citizens had a right to live in other EU countries “irrespective of whether they are homeless or not”.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “We are disappointed by today’s judgment. However, we respect the court’s findings and will not be appealing. We will consider carefully what steps are necessary to ensure we reflect the judgment in future enforcement.”

Fire stations in Manchester open their doors to homeless people as the temperature drops below freezing.

Common areas have been turned into temporary shelters in two emergency services centres to help house more rough sleepers in the city during the sub-zero conditions. Manchester Central and Ashton stations have converted areas in their buildings into living spaces that will be run by care workers, reported the Manchester Evening News.

Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham called on community leaders, including police and housing officials, to take “immediate” action over the crisis. “This is a clear example of all agencies in Greater Manchester pulling together to help support some of the most vulnerable people in our city region. Whilst most of us are enjoying the festive season, for those who have no choice but to sleep on the streets it is a lonely, dangerous, and potentially life-threatening time.”

County fire service spokesman Tony Hunter said that it was a natural step for the emergency service to help out. “For a number of years now GMFRS has been championing all of its fire stations as community assets and opening its doors to members of the public so it is a natural step for the service to support the ongoing homelessness work in the city,” he said.

“The community rooms that are being used as part of this initiative are heated and have hot and cold water and toilet facilities. “The rooms are separate from the operational areas of the stations and the initiative is supported by partners who will be at the station to facilitate people using the building, which allows firefighters to continue to do their jobs and respond to incidents in the usual way.”

The initiative is part of a wider plan to tackle homelessness in the city over Christmas, with calls also made to use empty student rooms over the holiday season for rough sleepers. It comes as more than 300,000 are now living on the streets across Britain — equivalent to a city the size of Newcastle — after the number of people who lost their home in the past year soared, the Shelter charity said.

It was reported last week that Stoke-on-Trent council was planning to fine rough sleepers up to £1,000 but, after an outcry, they have now seen sense and reversed the decision.

Will Morris, the director of homeless support charity House of Bread, said: “Threatening people with fines is just mad. If it wasn’t serious it would be laughable.” He went on to describe the authority’s plan – which included fining anyone found “assembling, erecting, occupying or using” a tent in an unauthorised area £1,000 – as a “farce”. “It seems like a crass way of dealing with it. Where’s the £1,000 going to come from? It’s not a logical reaction, it’s an overreaction. It says a lot about the unfeelingness of people.”

Stoke-on-Trent’s council is just the latest to face accusations that rather than tackle the root of the problem, the measures would simply punish those who found themselves living on the streets. “Fining or in any way criminalising people simply because they are homeless is wrong,” said Matt Downie, director of policy and external affairs at homelessness charity, Crisis.

“We understand that councils have to strike a balance between the concerns of local residents and the needs of rough sleepers, and where there’s genuine anti-social activity, it’s only right that they should intervene. Yet people deserve better than to be treated as criminals simply because they have nowhere to live.”

Councillor Randy Conteh, cabinet member for housing, communities and safer city, said: “I’d like to stress that we have never fined anyone for being homeless. Our consultation was only ever just that, an opportunity for people to feedback their views on a number of proposals.”

“We have listened to the strength of response and will no longer be including the proposal to fine someone for erecting a tent within the public space protection order area in the city centre. This option should not have been included and we apologise for any distress this has caused.”

Rough sleepers in Manchester will have the chance to start a new life off the streets in a £1.8m scheme that is to be agreed between private funders, housing providers, and the public and voluntary sectors.

According to 24Housing, the newly-established Greater Manchester Homes Partnership will work with ‘entrenched rough sleepers’ – people who have regularly slept rough over the past two years and/or are well known to homelessness services – over a three-year period. They will be given intensive support to be able to sustain a tenancy in one of 270 homes to be made available by 15 of Greater Manchester’s housing providers and two private rented sector partners. They will also be given the concentrated emotional and practical support they need to access the right kind of targeted health, training and employment services.

It is a UK first, as it represents the broadest range of partners that have ever come together for a government-backed initiative of this type, and it’s the biggest of its type outside London.

Greater Manchester’s councils have radically changed the way in which the city-region provides emergency support in cold weather. It will become the first major metropolitan area in the country to provide emergency help to rough sleepers as soon as the temperature drops below zero. Currently, local councils have a legal requirement to provide enhanced support following three nights of sub-zero temperatures.

But, following agreement between all 10 councils, these emergency measures will now come into place after just one night of cold weather. It’s believed to be the first time that all councils in a major metropolitan area have come together to set such an agreed standard.

Homelessness experts believe this new approach will save lives because rough sleepers will get emergency help much earlier than the legal minimum requires. Specific measures are decided locally in each borough, but include opening emergency homeless centres where beds, showers, and support is provided. Local councils have also agreed to grant homeless people free access to documents that are necessary to secure housing, such as birth certificates.

Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, said: “As winter draws in, it is vital that the right support is there for people who are sleeping on our streets. These measures are ground-breaking and genuinely innovative. It shows that Greater Manchester is leading the way when it comes to helping those in the direst of need.

“This also shows the power of partnership as none of this would be possible without the leadership which has been shown by our 10 local councils, other public bodies, housing providers and both the private and voluntary sectors. These measures will save lives this winter, and are an important step towards ending rough sleeping in Greater Manchester for good.”

“In terms of the cold weather policy which has been agreed across Greater Manchester, I would call on other city-regions to follow suit and follow the great example set here.”