PLANS to build tens of thousands of new homes across Kent would be scrapped under a Tory government, the party has pledged.

The Conservatives say that if elected, they intend to tear up John Prescott’s Sustainable Communities Plan that has earmarked around 120,000 homes for Ashford and north Kent over the next 20 years.

The party has also set out a commitment to abolish the unelected South East England Regional Assembly, SEERA. The assembly is currently consulting on proposals that could see even more homes built in Kent and the region.

Speaking at a conference to launch the Conservatives’ housing policy shadow minister John Hayes said: “If John Prescott has his way, 26 towns the size of Slough will blight our precious countryside.

Our proposals will give local people, not unelected quangos, a greater say on development. We will abolish Mr Prescott’s environmentally-damaging Communities Plan, which will concrete over the south while bulldozing Victorian terraces in the north.”

He lambasted Labour for its wrong-headed approach, warning that forcing development on Kent and the south east would create “socially distorted communities.” He also called for an urgent review of the Kent Thames Gateway project.

“It [the Government’s plans] will have the combined effect of leaving unaddressed the root causes of the failure on house building and putting much of England’s green space at risk...and creating fundamentally unsustainable, socially distorted settlements.”

Tory county council leader Sir Sandy Bruce-Lockhart welcomed the announcement. “The issue of housing does resonate with people in Kent. When Governments impose targets, they just do not work. It is an out of date idea that no other country in Europe adopts,” he said.

The Tory commitment is designed to ensure that the issue of housing development is a key election issue in Kent. In a sign that the party believes it can make capital out of the issue, Mr Haynes will make a whistle-stop tour of Kent on Tuesday with prospective candidates to talk about the party pledges.