MORE homes could be built on green belt land in Kent under Conservative plans heralding what has been seen as a major U-turn on the party’s housing policy.

Shadow chancellor George Osborne says he would change the definition of what was a greenfield site under a future Conservative government to improve the supply of affordable homes and get more people on the housing ladder.

But his pledge has prompted an angry reaction from environmental groups in Kent. Dr Hilary Newport, of the Kent branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, said: "The idea that we should change the planning system to help people get on the housing ladder is an exceptionally disturbing suggestion. I hesitate to use the words ‘vote grabbing’ but this is something we could not support."

What was important was to focus on properly managed regeneration, recognising the different needs of rural and urban areas.

"Policies ought to focus on regeneration, rather than sprawl. People are racing out of cities, leaving blight and dereliction - urban renaissance is what we need to focus on otherwise we are going to end up looking like Los Angeles," she added.

Although Mr Osborne stopped short of embracing the Government’s plans for a major expansion of house-building in Kent and the rest of the south east, he said: "I want us to look afresh at the planning system and tackle the delays and obstruction that is damaging the affordability of housing. We should take a fresh look at what we mean by a ‘green field’ site. Too often our current system protects the marginal scrubland, because it is ‘green field’ while at the same time lets precious urban green spaces likes gardens get built over because they are labelled ‘brownfield’."

It was vital the Conservatives were "on the side of the first time buyer, helping young families realise their dream of home-ownership," he added.

Ashford MP Damian Green denied that Mr Osborne was advocating policies that threatened greenfield sites.

"What he is saying is that we do need to do more for first-time buyers and to avoid having top down housing strategies set by Whitehall and unelected quangos.

"I think a lot of the stresses and strains we are seeing in Ashford could be avoided if we allowed local communities to say how they wanted to grow and we would be much more likely to get the infrastructure that we need at the right time.

"The government is setting housing targets but is not providing the money for new hospitals, roads, car parks and other community facilities we need."