The government has badged 20 brownfield sites “housing zones”, which were previously developed land for the new-build sites.
The zones include areas like Elstree Train Corridor in Borehamwood, Weston-super-Mare in Somerset and Poole Power Station.
Councils will receive the majority of the money to help speed up work in 19 out of the 20 flagship housing zones and work in partnership with private developers.
Some £740,000 from the fund will be used to provide specialist technical support to the zones.
The funding comes on top of a £1.2bn Starter Home Fund which aims to prepare the sites for at least 30,000 new homes.
The government is also committing to work with an additional eight shortlisted potential zones for a total of 45,000 potential new homes, as part of its ambition to deliver a million homes by 2020.
Housing minister Brandon Lewis said: “Housing zones offer enormous potential to use brownfield land for new homes which is why this government is determined to get them built as soon as possible.
“This funding will play an important part in getting work underway which will lead to new homes and more security for aspiring homeowners,” he added.
Yesterday, the government announced plans to commission 13,000 home builds on publicly-owned land.
As part of the government’s Housing and Planning Bill, councils will be legally obliged to guarantee the delivery of starter homes on all reasonably sized development sites, and to promote the delivery of starter homes in their area.
In the past year, the number of new build homes increased by 25%, according to the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG).