The man overseeing the development of a new garden city in Kent has said he expects between 3,000 to 5,000 homes to be built on the site over the next four to five years.

Michael Cassidy, chairman of Ebbsfleet Development Corporation, said he expects house building to speed up drastically in the brownfield land between Gravesend and Dartford.

His organisation, which has full planning powers over the site, will be given £200 million of Government funding to spend on new infrastructure for houses in Ebbsfleet, most of which will be built in the Eastern Quarry south of Swanscombe.

There has been little house building in the area despite outline planning permission first being awarded in 1996, three years before Bluewater opened.

Mr Cassidy, who also sits on the board of Crossrail, said his team expects the Government to give it a “decent settlement” in the spending review later this month, which he said would help it kick start development.

However, he said it was difficult to look at what will happen beyond the end of this Parliament.

He said: “We are trying to be ambitious and realistic.

“The house building going on now is at low volume but never the less it is activity and the houses are being bought.

“That is what is behind our optimism. We have a full board and feel we have the capability to start delivering projects.”

As well as the Eastern Quarry, the Ebbsfleet garden city will also include 900 homes on the former Northfleet Substation near the A2, owned by house builder Redrow.

“We are trying to be ambitious and realistic..." - Michael Cassidy, Ebbsfleet Development Corporation

Planning for this was approved at the development corporation’s first board meeting, which Mr Cassidy believes could fire the starter gun for new homes next year.

So far, only 350 homes have been built in the garden city site even though demand has been high.

Ward Homes said it has been oversubscribed for the 150 houses it is building in the Castle Hill development in the Eastern Quarry.

Mr Cassidy said developers will be keener to build if costly infrastructure works like sewage and roads are met by the development corporation.

He said: “Our job is to persuade house builders to up the volume. If we are able to come in and undertake work they would have had to do that is a good trade.

“We we will shoulder the burden if they will deliver twice the number of houses.”

Details of a public consultation on a masterplan for the site, put together by engineering design firm Aecom, will be released in the coming days.