The developers of a medical campus are hoping an application for government funding can speed up improvements of nearby roads, Kent Business understands.

Details of a bid for £5m are expected to be revealed to help meet the cost of upgrading roundabouts around Kent Medical Campus near Junction 7 of the M20 in Maidstone.

The site is already home to the private KIMS Hospital. Construction of an £18m mental health hospital, to be run by Cygnet Health Care, is underway and is expected to open next year.

If successful, the cash from the National Productivity Investment Fund will allow the site’s landowners to complete its planning conditions by 2019, rather than at a slower pace as the site fills up. It will find out in October.

It is understood the bid will be backed by a further £1.5m from Kent Medical Campus and £500,000 from Maidstone Borough Council to help improve local traffic flows, stimulate jobs and support housing development.

Kent Medical Campus, which its hoped will create 2,300 jobs by 2022, had its outline planning permission renewed in February subject to obligations. Planning conditions also included contributions towards improving bus services, education, libraries, youth services and parking controls. Businesses moving to the site will receive business rate discounts of up to £55,000 a year for five years after the campus gained enteprise zone status last year.

The North Kent Enterprise Zone, as it is known, also includes Ebbsfleet Garden City and Rochester Airport Technology Park.

Alex Hicken, managing director of Maidstone’s DHA Planning – the planning consultancy for the scheme – said: “Since the enterprise zone started we have Cygnet secured and under construction, an application for a step-down care unit and two other parties negotiating heads of terms, including an acquired brain injury treatment centre.

“The momentum is there. The other parts of this zone don’t have that same momentum.”

The campus, which will become the largest employment site in Maidstone, was originally strawberry farms and is owned by the same family which owns Newnham Court shopping centre next door.

Planning teams have received hundreds of inquiries, ranging from potential minor injury units to GP surgeries, physio clinics to start-ups looking for office space. They are in talks with Kent’s universities. Talks with a research and development company about a major tenancy have stalled because of Brexit.

Mr Hicken said: “They were hoping to win a big contract but unfortunately the vote meant it didn’t come off. They are still interested but have been delayed.

“Other people have slowed down because of the election and Brexit but we have not lost anyone.”