The country's "broken" housing system must be fixed, a former council leader has urged.

Cllr Sir Paul Carter (Con), who led Kent County Council (KCC) for 14 years, has called for sweeping reforms to house building in towns and villages.

It comes as Kent is having to contend with the "greatest amount of housing growth" anywhere in England's counties, according to Cllr Carter.

The Maidstone Rural North representative said: "I believe it is an inefficient and broken system."

His comments were aired in County Hall's main council chamber of Sessions House in Maidstone.

Around 1.85million people live in The Garden of England, which is the largest population of all the English counties, spanning more than 3,700km from Dover to Sevenoaks.

However, concerns have been raised over a "gap" in promises made by developers to create new infrastructure schemes, such as schools, hospitals, GP surgeries and youth services.

It comes as thousands more homes are built across the county's 13 districts, including Medway.

Without major reform, Cllr Carter added: "We are doomed in the county of Kent."

Financial "viability" of developments is a common reason that new community assets requested by councils are not secured, with companies saying they cannot "afford" planning obligations.

In Kent, some Tory councillors have favoured an "infrastructure first" model which would see the creation of services like adult social care, libraries and broadband, before new houses.

Swale county councillor John Wright (Con) said: "The system at the moment is bureaucratic.

"It does not give clarity to either developers and makes it more difficult for other partners to engage in."

This comes a year after Boris Johnson's government announced a radical move to scrap an outdated S106 levy on developers and to introduce a more modern, streamlined and fairer system.

Broadstairs county councillor Rosalind Binks said any reforms are "way too late" as the "damage has already been done" in Thanet.

She said: "We have sold off land and got very little for it in terms of public money. There is not much left."

It comes a week after fresh plans were unveiled by Axis Land Partnerships (ALP) to build 1,500 homes in a development called Humber's Mill near Westwood Cross, Thanet.

In Canterbury, Cllr Mike Sole, of the Liberal Democrats, said "an enormous development" of more than 1,000 homes is being built in his division of Thanington.

A new doctor's surgery was pledged by the unnamed developer, however this will not be delivered because Kent's NHS will not staff it as they were "unaware" of it, according to Cllr Sole.

He said: "When facilities like this are promised, we should double check to see this is going to happen.

"Residents are left believing something will happen and then they are the ones left suffering when it does not."

KCC says it will continue to "lobby" the UK government in changes to current planning system arrangements in the future.

Going forward, Whitehall is expected to make an updated announcement over the next 13 months.

Read more: all the latest news from Kent.