Prime Minister David Cameron's Big Society can still work, according to a Medway MP.

Mark Reckless, who represents Rochester and Strood, admitted the idea of giving power to communities has not been well explained and was launched at the wrong time.

Speaking at a lecture at the University of Kent, he said: "I think it has the potential to work. I certainly think it was a mistake for my party to launch it in the middle of an election campaign without candidates knowing what was going to happen.

"We've struggled to explain it as a concept. But I think people do recognise that it is describing something that matters to all of us - civic society."

He added: "What we want to find is a way of giving freedom to groups using government money, but also saying that some things that were previously done by the government can be done better by people coming together."

Mr Reckless also said the Conservative party should have been clearer about what it was going to do about university tuition fees before last year's election.

Parliament voted to increase fees to as much as £9,000 a year in December.

But Reckless, who voted against the rise, said: "It's quite shocking in terms of the speed it's happening.

"I don't think people have had a chance to plan for the changes. I think we should tell people what we're doing at elections. I think we should have spoken before the election about the pressures and the choice we wanted to make."