Outspoken wildlife television presenter Chris Packham has waded into the debate over mass housebuilding plans across Kent, saying: “We can’t be Nimbyist”.

The climate campaigner previously urged people to join a march against a huge new 2,000-home development on land in Blean, next to the University of Kent’s Canterbury campus, describing it as “another threat to nature”.

Now Mr Packham admits residents need to be “realistic” and accept the county needs more homes - but not “in the wrong place with the wrong types of mitigation”.

He also argues that all new houses should have “solar roofs”.

Speaking to KentOnline’s sister radio station kmfm, he said: “Kent is an area where lots of people live, and we need houses for more people to live there.

“What we're going to see in the next few years is a lot of proposals for development.

“I think we need to be realistic and we need to be critical. We need those new houses, but we need the right houses built in the right way, put in the right place.”

He also said empty homes and brownfield sites should be targeted first for redevelopment.

The conservationist was speaking as photographs of penguins he took in Antarctica and the Falkland Isles are set to be exhibited in a Deal art gallery run by friend Richard Taylor Jones.

“I like Kent very much,” Mr Packham said, “and would normally be visiting nature reserves in pursuit of orchids, birds, butterflies, and all of the riches the county holds.”

He then gave his thoughts on the many controversial housing developments planned across the county which face huge opposition from local people.

Sites for tens of thousands of new homes have been earmarked in district and borough councils’ local plans - with each authority required to meet government-set targets.

Labour wants 1.5 million homes built across the country over the next five years.

Mr Packham said: “Sometimes developers come forward with very good plans and proposals where nature is a winner, where the communities are presented with opportunities, increased services, doctors, schools, shops, all of those sorts of things.

“And so those sorts of programmes, we should definitely be keenly supporting. It's going to be tricky, but I think we have to apply common sense as to when and where and how we put these buildings in.

“But I do fear that we're going to be asking to put them in the wrong place with the wrong types of mitigation.

“There are some great developers out there who do brilliant things environmentally, and for biodiversity, there's no ambiguity about that, I've been to see their work, and some of those are rolling out in Kent, as we speak.

“But at the same time, I still feel there are a body of people that want to just maximise their profit and not pass on the benefits to those people that end up living in the houses. And that needs to be dealt with at government level.”

Mr Packham says developers “love going for the easy option” on greenfield sites where they can just “chuck in all the pipes”.

“At that point, we do have to stand up and say, look, this is not a good idea,” he said.

“On the other side of things, we can't be Nimbyist about it.

“But let's think about right houses to start with. They should all have solar roofs, they should all be insulated to a very high standard, which currently housebuilding standards in the UK don't require.

“What's the point of building a house and then people not being able to afford to heat it due to an energy crisis?”

Mr Packham, who is also UK Ambassador for the Climate Emergency Fund, is a fan of onshore wind farms.

"There's no question, we need onshore wind,” he says.

“Turbines are not always popular. But what would you rather have, a turbine in the landscape or no landscape? Because basically, we've carried on burning oil, coal and gas, and we've destroyed the planet.”

There is only one onshore wind farm in Kent, consisting of 26 turbines at Cheyne Court - deep in the Romney Marsh, west of Lydd.

There was a proposal by energy firm Ecotricity to open a second wind farm on the marsh at Snave, but after long-running opposition, it abandoned the plans in 2015.

However, the new Labour government says it will move to treat onshore wind farms as Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects, “meaning decisions on large developments will be taken nationally not locally”, according to Chancellor Rachel Reeves.

Mr Packham’s pictures will be on display at Taylor-Jones & Son gallery in Deal from 10am on Saturday with all works available to purchase, starting at £195.