Chancellor says spending could ‘unlock’ construction of up to 50,000 homes in London, south-east and East Anglia

Sajid Javid has announced more than £600m of new infrastructure spending that will potentially support the construction of up to 50,000 homes in London, the south-east and east of England.

The funding, which will come from the Housing Infrastructure Fund (HIF) that Javid launched in July 2017 when he was secretary of state for communities and local government, will go towards the building of roads, rail links, schools and other infrastructure projects.

Almost £220m will be spent in Essex on a bypass and a new train station to the north of Chelmsford, which could support 14,000 new homes. Another £100m will be spent on a new road near Colchester that could lead to the construction of 7,500 homes.

London will receive around £240m for two schemes in Enfield and the east of the capital, while just under £70m will be spent in central Bedfordshire to build a new secondary school and transport infrastructure.

The chancellor said: “I want to see more homes built in the places people want to live, so more people realise the dream of homeownership.

“But we need the roads, rail links, and schools to support the families living in those homes, which is why I set up a fund to put in place the infrastructure to unlock new homes in these areas.”

The government’s £5.5bn housing fund has already allocated more than £1.6bn on 243 projects across the country, including rail links in Cumbria and transport infrastructure in Devon and Cornwall.

London’s Labour mayor, Sadiq Khan, welcomed the funding, tweeting: “I’m delighted we have secured funding for more frequent Overground services, station upgrades and other infrastructure to support growth in Enfield, Canada Water, New Bermondsey and Deptford – unlocking 21,000 homes that Londoners so desperately need.”

The announcement will further fuel rumours that the prime minister, Boris Johnson, is planning a blitz of public spending in the runup to a general election. But in an interview with the Times, Javid said “that when it comes to spending, you’ve got to pick priorities. Not everything can be a priority.”

However, the chancellor’s commitment to infrastructure projects means that further projects are likely to unveiled in the future.