The money will go to a wide range of schemes, and for the first time will be administered by Regional Development Agencies.
There is assistance for projects throughout the UK, ranging from Regenerating Peterborough to Leicester North West - A Better Direction, a scheme intended to bring relief to coalfields in the north of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire.
There is also money for Blackburn, Gateshead, Rochdale, Lancaster, Plymouth, Stoke-on-Trent, Walsall and Wolverhampton, as well as a range of rural communities.
In London, the DETR approved 38 projects that will share £320m. They are also expected to draw in £365m of private sector support.
South London’s Elephant & Castle area and north London’s Finsbury Park are two of seven areas in the UK that will each attract more than £20m in SRB funding.
At the same time, trade and industry secretary Stephen Byers unveiled a government review of its Assisted Areas Map. Areas to qualify for the biggest regional investment grants are Cornwall, Merseyside, South Yorkshire, and West Wales and the Valleys.
The government also announced that Britain is to get £2.6bn of European funding between 2000 and 2006.
