The housing association received £58m to build 1,244 homes for affordable rent and a further 1,066 shared ownership units.

This latest deal takes the HCA total funding release to £450m, almost  a quarter way through the £1.8bn programme of affordable housing funding allocated by the Government.

Also in the London area, Swan Housing Association signed a deal for £38.7m, allowing it to press ahead with plans to build 1,286 homes in London and 214 in the south east.

The allocation was welcomed by Swan Housing Association deputy chief executive, Mark Thompson. He said: “Of the 1,500 units funded as part of this scheme, around 1,000 are on firm schemes where we are either on site already or own the land.

“This means that our programme looks healthy and deliverable.”