Woking and Truro are to share a combined £142m of government funding for new housing and infrastructure.

Woking takes the lion’s share, £95m, with Truro to receive £47m after a competitive funding allocation process, and the money will be spent on widening bridges, building roads and connecting utilities so up to 8,500 new properties can be built.

The spending, under the £5.5bn Housing Infrastructure Fund, is all part of the government’s drive to deliver 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s.

Housing minister Kit Malthouse said: “We are driving to create homes, opportunities and thriving communities, and this £142m investment will mean we can build more of the properties our country so badly needs. We need to keep upping our game and build more, better, faster, if we are to meet our ambition to deliver 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s.”

The £95m for Woking will unlock land to build up to 4,500 homes in the town, widening the Victoria Arch Bridge, paying for road improvements, buying land and connecting utilities. The project, which is being delivered by Surrey county council, is expected to significantly reduce congestion in the area, as well as opening up land for housing.

Meanwhile, the £47m for Truro will be spent on a new northern access road, connecting sites from the A390 in the west to the Royal Cornwall Hospital and employment hub in the east. The work will enable an extra 4,000 homes to be built.