The government has announced that three bids for a share of a fund designed to help speed up regeneration and housing projects in Kent have been successful.

The projects have together been granted £21m to help ensure they get off the ground and are not stalled.

Housing Secretary Sajid Javid says 32 council-led projects across the South East are to receive funding that will make housing developments viable and get much needed homes built quicker.

Dover is to get £15m to help fund a rapid bus transit scheme that will join the town with developments at White Cliffs Business Park.

Meanwhile, £3.5m has been given to a scheme to build nearly 1,000 homes on Sheppey as part of the Queenborough and Rushenden Regeneration project, involving clearing a former industrial brownfield site.

It overlooks The Swale and is being marketed as ideal commuter homes in Queenborough. There is planned investment in new roads to provide a direct link to the A249.

And in Thanet, £2.5m will go to improvements around the Manston Road and the Haine Roundabout as part of a wider scheme to create an inner and outer ring road around Thanet.

However, not all bids were successful with Ashford, Maidstone, Shepway and Tunbridge Wells missing out.

Housing Secretary Sajid Javid said: "My priority is building the homes this country desperately needs.

"This first wave of investment in projects across the South East will help get up to 50,000 homes off the ground, making a huge difference to communities across the region. This is just one of the many ways this Government is taking action to get Britain building homes again.”

The money has come from the government’s Marginal Viability Fund under which councils can apply for help to complete infrastructure needed to speed up developments.