More than 70,000 social and affordable homes are to be built across six English regions over the next decade under an initial allocation of almost £10bn.

Funding has been awarded to Greater Manchester, the West Midlands, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, North East England and Liverpool. A further £6bn was previously announced for London.

The allocation forms the first part of the government’s £39bn social housebuilding programme, which is intended to deliver 300,000 social and affordable homes.

Housing charities welcomed the announcement but warned that the programme would not be sufficient to meet demand. The Conservatives described it as an “unfunded spending commitment”.

Social housing is provided at below-market cost and managed by local authorities, housing associations and other social landlords. The category includes affordable rented homes and low-cost home ownership schemes such as shared ownership.

Before becoming prime minister, Andy Burnham called for the entire £39bn affordable housing budget for England to be spent on homes for social rent. These are typically let at about half the market rate and are subject to eligibility criteria.

Burnham told The Social Housing Podcast in May: “I would actually devote all of it to social housing.”

However, 60% of the homes included in the latest announcement will be for social rent.

Housing minister Matthew Pennycook told BBC Breakfast that he did not accept Burnham had failed to meet his previous commitment, saying the government had adopted a “pragmatic approach” and wanted to “get money out the door”.

Pennycook said the next tranche of funding would place greater emphasis on council housing, which is generally classified as housing for social rent.

DETAIL QUESTIONED

Sir Vince Cable, chair of the independent Housing Policy and Delivery Oversight Committee, welcomed the investment but warned that its scale should be considered against England’s existing housing stock and population growth.

He said: “Of course it’s good that Andy Burnham is announcing concrete steps to improve the housing stock and reduce the terrible levels of accommodation for so many families.

“Building is not just good for families it’s good for the economy. Construction workers employed along with suppliers, surveyors, lawyers, estate agents and the myriad of businesses that are involved in fitting out homes.

“Income earned helps the tax paid and the public finances.

“But let’s not get carried away. The numbers sound big.

“Until you analyse them. The new homes could amount to (broadly) 7,000 a year over the 10 year period of the funds.

“That is compared to more than 30.4 million homes, which is about 0.023 of the total. And 0.23% of population is about 16,000 people.

“Meanwhile the population increases by many times more than that each year. It’s single drop of rain on a parched field, although there are more funds to disburse later.

“The one off announcements we have heard over the summer do not result in a fully joined up policy. And already the money announced today has been watered down so it will not all go to “council” housing.

“There will be mixture of social and affordable housing.

“Overall this is one cheer territory. A start but a long, long way to go.”