A major step forward has been taken in the transformation of a derelict section of the bank of the River Thames.

Berkeley Group has bought a 5.5-hectare plot at Northfleet and has applied to build a huge manufacturing centre for pre-fabricated homes.

The site will create hundreds of jobs and form the backbone of the company’s push into the world of ‘modular’ homes – which can be built entirely in factories before being delivered to site and assembled.

Berkeley says the process will more than halve the build time to just three months and allow them to build twice as many homes in the same amount of space.

The first homes, which were built in a factory in the Midlands, were erected in Reading and Greenwich last year.

The land – on the site of the former Northfleet Power Station and AEI Cable Works – is part of the Northfleet East Embankment development which will create 650 jobs and 600 homes.

Northfleet Embankment East forms part of Ebbsfleet Garden City, which will deliver 15,000 homes over the next 15 years. Berkeley’s multi-million-pound investment means a smaller commercial plot – which sits to the south of Crete Hall Road – is the only section left without a proposal.

On the neighbouring section of the waterfront Keepmoat will build 598 houses and apartments, a primary school, shops, play park and community facilities.

An outline application for the wider commercial development was approved earlier this year and can be viewed here while further details of Berkeley’s involvement, including a proposed access route off Crete Hall Road, click here.