The sum has been revealed to the Evening Telegraph for the first time as the development has this spring entered its last phase which will see the final 270 homes built.

A large part of the money has funded the regeneration activity in the town and helped towards the cost of the £30m civic hub and the £20m swimming pool being built in George Street.

Since 2001, 2,650 homes have been built on land to the south-east of the town, which has been brought over six phases by developer Cofton. It has then sold on the land to housebuilders such as Persimmon and Barratt Homes.

The local authority still has to receive its final payment, which will run into millions of pounds. The final phase will cover 46 acres and in total 364 acres have been sold off by the council.

A council spokesman said: "The anticipated receipts in the year for 2008/09 are £17.231m.

"A proportion of this will come from Oakley Vale, but there are also other disposals. Due to ongoing commercial negotiations it is not appropriate to provide a breakdown of this total in a public report."

Oakley Vale has attracted home buyers from across the country, in particular the London and southern areas, after a high profile publicity campaign called More in Corby which ran adverts on the London Underground.

A new start-of-the-art eco-friendly primary school is to open in September which will have room for more than 200 pupils.

Lead member for regeneration at Corby Council Cllr Jimmy Noble said without the money the town would not have been able to move forward as much as it had.

He said: "The money we have gathered from Oakley Vale and other areas has certainly given us a good capital programme. We have reinvested the money into the borough and allowed us to regenerate."

As part of the growth agenda 16,500 homes are set to be built across the borough by 2021.

On top of the Oakley Vale site, building has already started on the 5,000 homes site at Priors Hall, near Weldon, and contractors are also on site at a 1,000-home development in Stanion.

There is also a smaller 300 homes development at the Southern Gateway site and 150 homes are almost completed at the former Golden Wonder site in Rockingham Road.