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The lion's share will come from the Newcastle Gateshead market renewal pathfinder, which has put in its initial request for £93.4m from the ODPM and expects the total investment in renewal by 2018 to reach £1.7bn.

Meanwhile, Gateshead council tenants have backed the council's £232m arm's-length management funding bid. The council claims the "yes" vote puts it on course to invest a total of £330m in housing by 2010.

  After the ALMO ballot, Gateshead's director of neighbourhood operations, Bill Fullen, said: "This is a reflection that the tenants trust the council to deliver on its promises."

Research firm MRUK ran a postal ballot of Gateshead's 24,000 tenants and 28% replied. Of them, 93.5% backed the ALMO.

It should be up and running by January 2004.

Gateshead will receive the first tranche of the government money as soon as it gets a two-star rating from the Audit Commission. The next inspection is due in October 2004.

The Newcastle Gateshead pathfinder bid was submitted to the ODPM at the end of September. It asked for £93.4m during its first three years of operation. With private funding, this will build up to a total of £1.7bn, to be invested in regenerating the area's housing market over the full 15 years of the project.

For the first three years of the pathfinder, Newcastle's troubled West End will get the most money, receiving £29.5m in total.

Gateshead will get £21.1m of pathfinder cash over the first three years, to which the council plans to add £112m of private money and £25m from the Housing Corporation and regeneration quango English Partnerships. The money will pay for 3900 properties to be cleared, 7800 to be built and 6000 to be refurbished.

Of the nine pathfinders set up by government in April 2002, Newcastle Gateshead is the second to submit its full strategy. The first, Manchester Salford, got the green light last Monday.