Homes England, and Barclays have agreed £155.3m of loan funding to speed up the delivery of 660 new homes in Wimbledon and Southampton.

The deals are the first to be agreed from the £1bn Housing Delivery Fund, which was announced by communities secretary James Brokenshire and former Barclays chairman John McFarlane in September last year.

In Wimbledon, £150m will be loaned to Merton Catalyst LLP, a joint venture between housing association Catalyst and developer Galliard. The funding will be used to help bring forward 604 apartments on the hybrid residential-led scheme at the former Wimbledon Greyhound Stadium site in Plough Lane. The mixed-use development will also include commercial space, improved public realm, and a new sports stadium delivered by AFC Wimbledon.

In Southampton, Cannon Capital Developments will receive a £5.3m loan to convert a former commercial building into 56 apartments for private sale in the city’s Ogle Road.

The Housing Delivery Fund was set up between the government and Barclays Corporate Banking to provide £1bn of loan finance to “open up the housing market and help small and medium-sized developers to deliver new homes across the country.”

Housing minister Kit Malthouse said: “Upping our game to build more, better and faster is how we are going to meet our ambition of delivering 300,000 homes a year by the middle of the next decade. Innovations are key to unlocking the next generation of homes and our Housing Delivery Fund is a great example of the new approaches we’re taking to get more homes out the starting blocks.”

Sir Edward Lister, chairman of Homes England, said: “We promised to form new, innovative partnerships to shake up the housing market and do things differently to accelerate the delivery of new homes across the country, and this partnership with Barclays is doing just that. This is a real milestone moment as we announce the first loan deals to come to fruition, which will see new housing be delivered in two areas where it is needed most.”