Bosses of small firms have raised doubts about their chances of getting a slice of construction work when a garden city in north Kent is built.

More than 50 business leaders at a conference organised by the FSB said government officials give big construction contracts to big companies because it is easier than dealing with several smaller groups.

Some questioned whether deals are already in place for the construction of the 15,000-home town between Gravesend and Dartford, put forward by George Osborne in this year’s Budget.

Yet there were attempts to allay their fears from a panel which included Dartford MP Gareth Johnson, council leader Jeremy Kite and Christine Clarke, land director of Land Securities, one of the site’s land owners.

A consultation is still running, until October 6, on the setting up of a body to oversee the planning process for the garden city, called the Ebbsfleet Development Corporation.

David Denning, of Maidstone-based Assential Property Services, said: “It is a fantastic idea but I’m concerned about the involvement of smaller business.

“These meetings are fantastic but I was at the Olympic Park roll out and smaller businesses had very minimal involvement.

“The government will take the easy route and go for the bigger companies and claim the smaller companies are on their supply chain, which in many cases is completely untrue.

He added: “They say ‘don’t worry you will be on the supply chain’ but to get on it you have to fill out a document which is 900 pages long which they never look at.

“That can take a guy several days to put together and if you get a crumb you are very lucky.”

The Question Time-style debate, which lasted for more than three hours, saw panel members each give a short summary of their views on the scheme, before bosses were invited to give their views.

Many called for a body, like the FSB, to represent them when contracts are handed out.

Dale Vivian, of Strood-based Glasweld UK, said: “We need small businesses to have a voice on the big panels.

“If the FSB could have an equal shout and represent the small business man in a co-operative environment, we can have a joint voice. We want them to have a fair crack at the lucrative work. We need someone representing us with the same voice as the bigger players.”

MP Gareth Johnson called on the Ebbsfleet Development Corporation to take on board the “hopes and aspirations” of small businesses but warned the development strategy has to be clear.

He said: “We all want this to be a success but we have to go about it in the right way.

“The government will take the easy route and go for the bigger companies and claim the smaller companies are on their supply chain, which in many cases is completely untrue..." - Assential Services' David Denning

“It is not often you get pretty much a blank piece of paper to build a community on and what we don’t want is a hotch potch of ideas that are put into place.

“We want a strategic approach to make sure there is a direction the garden city will go in to make sure it is an attractive place to live in.”

Not all small businesses at the FSB conference this month were negative about their chances of getting involved in the construction contracts.

Tree and shrubs wholesaler Palmstead Nurseries, near Wye, grew more than 100,000 plants for the Olympic Park through the government’s procurement process.

The firm employs 45 people and said businesses needed to apply together and show how they could all complete the supply chain on a job.

However, the job only made up about 1.5% of the company’s turnover that year.

Marketing manager Nick Coslett said: “The chance is stronger if a business collaborates with other firms. “The future is in partnerships.

“It is difficult for some of the micro businesses to get involved as some of the bigger ones can be a bit dominating and challenging.

“But if businesses come together as groups of companies that can bid for these things, they have got a chance.

“Then they will have a bigger pool of skills, flexibility and a bigger chance to adapt.

“We want the supply chain procurement to be a bit more joined up so that it isn’t all last minute and the original concepts are not devalued by the main contractors, which is what happens in landscape at the moment.

“We were working for a Kent company at the Olympic Park. It was a small bit but it was interesting, demanding and challenging work where failure wasn’t an option. We were an equal team partner around the table.”