The Labour leader of Canterbury City Council has revealed he is relaxed about house-building targets.

Cllr Alan Baldock says the authority would permit developers to build what they need, so long as it was in areas agreed as part of the Local Plan.

Speaking on the latest episode of the Kent Politics Podcast, Cllr Baldock added the authority would not stand in the way of developers provided they met with the requirements of the local plan.

He added the issue was likely to be one that would be a key election battleground when the country goes to the polls.

He said: “We have to build the right number of houses; that is based on evidence and so long as we build those, we will be fine.”

However, he said that it would take time to build the number needed and acknowledged that the authority had - in common with others - not met targets for “building out” new homes.

He also defended the joint administration involving a coalition with the Liberal Democrats saying that it “worked even though the two parties “came from different places.”

“It is something we wanted to do and were advised to do. There are a great number of things we both shared and wanted to do and have in fact done. Overall, I am pretty happy about it to be quite honest; we work well together.”

He said that Labour gains at last year’s council elections were a further sign of the likelihood of the party forming the next government.

However, he said local councils would want to see a government led by Sir Kier Starmer be more sympathetic to its challenges.

“Local councils have struggled for years - certainly the last 14 years of Conservative austerity - has absolutely hollowed out everything and we need to re-build that. But we are totally realistic - the finances of local councils are a complete and utter car crash now.”

Cllr Baldock also explained why the council had dropped its controversial scheme for traffic zones, a key feature of its Local Plan.

You can listen to the podcast at IM Listening, or download it from Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and TuneIn – just search for Kent Politics Podcast.

New episodes are available each Friday.