THE Government is likely to use a major public inquiry to push for three quarter of a million homes to be built in Kent and the south east over the next two decades, the county’s most senior planner has warned.

County councillors have been told to expect ministers to push for even higher housing targets when an inquiry into the South East Plan - the planning blueprint that sets out those targets - gets underway later this year.

The warning came from Leigh Herington, county planning officer for KCC. He predicted the Department for Communities and Local Government, along with developers and businesses, would point to statistical trends to back up the case that 37,000 homes should be built in the south east region each year up to 2026.

That represents a massive leap over the 28,900 homes per year agreed by the South East England Regional Assembly (SEERA) last year.

Mr Herington told a meeting of Kent County Council’s Conservative cabinet ministers would raise the stakes at the inquiry.

He said: "Given the Government’s reaction to the latest trend in household formation for 37,000 homes per annum, my expectation is the Government will be looking at a new figure in the higher end of 30,000."

A figure of 37,000 a year would mean 740,000 houses in the south east, rather than the 578,000 the plan sets out. For Kent, it would increase significantly the 122,000 homes expected to be built in the next two decades.

A report setting out recent national trends in households and families, published by the Office of National Statistics in March, highlighted how the number of households in Britain had increased by 30 per cent between 1971 and 2005 to 24.2million while there was a 29 per cent in single-person households over the same period.

According to Mr Herrington, if that trend was to continue, it would support those backing higher house-building targets.

It has already emerged officials from John Prescott’s former department have already taken SEERA to task for its failure to consult on a higher house-building target of 36,000 homes a year when it agreed the plan.

The public inquiry is due to start in November after public consultation on the plan ended this week.