Although it will have the power to force land owners to sell their assets, the Ebbsfleet Development Corporation’s chairman-designate Michael Cassidy does not expect to use them.

So much land already has planning permission for large developments in the valley between Gravesend and Dartford it is little wonder George Osborne felt bold enough in his Budget to announce it as the trailblazer for a new wave of garden cities across the UK.

For starters, commercial property giant Land Securities has outline planning permission for more than 6,000 homes in the Eastern Quarry, as well as 6m sq ft of commercial space and 3m sqft of retail, leisure and community facilities across the Ebbsfleet Valley. However, only 300 homes have been built so far.

In March, Redrow Homes was given consent to build up to 950 homes on the former Northfleet West Substation next to the A2, on a site the size of 50 football pitches.

“The house builders at Redrow are very enthusiastic about the old national grid plot they have,” said Michael Cassidy, in his soft but authorative and deep voice.

“They think the Ebbsfleet International station is going to be a big draw for people buying on their site. They seem exceptionally confident.”

Mr Cassidy was speaking at the launch of the Kent Property Market Report, where undoubtedly the attitude among developers was one of optimism, even if the statistics are not quite showing that yet.

The launch took place at Eastgate, a conference building in Springhead Park, Northfleet, one of the first developments built as part of the original vision for homes in the area several years ago.

“The pace will pick up because that is the whole point of having an urban development corporation,” said Mr Cassidy. “It will inject some extra budget and new ideas.”

Since taking the job in August, Mr Cassidy has spent most of his time meeting as many people as possible to get familiar with the issues surrounding Ebbsfleet’s development.

He has visited Kings Hill to see how the “garden village” there was built and met with the developers behind the London Paramount Entertainment Resort earmarked for the Swanscombe Peninsula to the north. He admitted he was sceptical at first about the latter £2bn proposals but has been won over.

He said: “I have seen the Paramount presentation and came at it with an open mind. By the time I understood the details I found it much more convincing.

“I am now doing what I can to encourage them. I don’t think it is going to be an inconvenience. It wil be an asset.

“I believe the funding turns on a visit to the head of state in Kuwait very shortly. If that is unlocked, I can see that moving quite fast.”

Even if it were not to happen, Mr Cassidy still believes a garden city at Ebbsfleet would be viable.

His priority is to attract businesses to locate in the area, perhaps focusing on creative industries, which are booming in London.

“They could do with reserved space at the moment,” he said. “They can’t all pile into the West End. I could see theatre rehearsal rooms coming to a location like this because the land is generous enough and it is 17 minutes from St Pancras.

“I would like to attract a university if I could, which Stratford has done.

“I’m going to pinch ideas from Stratford because they are on a roll at the moment. I see them as a bit of a competitor for Ebbsfleet.

“An exciting part of this job is going to be approaching people who may not have thought about this location before and persuading them.

“There was some suggestion that an expo might be put at Ebbsfleet, like the one in Seville and Shanghai.

“London is running out of space for big shows like that and we can’t go back to the Olympics with it.

“I’m not encouraging that at the moment because I don’t think we can have Paramount and an expo but it shows you that there’s ideas that would fill this vacuum coming along.

“It is going to be an optimistic story, not a struggle.”