LOCAL people will be forced to move because not enough affordable homes are being built in the Thames Gateway.

This is one of the conclusions of the influential Public Accounts Committee in a report which slams the Government for lack of joined-up thinking over the world's biggest regeneration project.

The report, published on Thursday, said the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) is not up to the job.

Accounts committee chairman, Edward Leigh (Con) said: "Action must be taken now to prevent the enterprise ending in another public spending calamity."

It recently established a delivery team under Judith Armitt, the former Medway chief executive.

Rodney Chambers, Conservative leader of Medway Council and chairman of the Medway Renaissance Partnership, said he expected to hear that some of the known problems would be answered at the annual Thames Gateway Forum later this month.

The Government plans to build 160,000 houses and create 180,000 jobs in North Kent, Essex and East London by 2016 bringing in 350,000 new residents and boosting the area's population by 22 per cent.

The committee fears 65,000 homes will not be built in time.

Medway has set itself a target of 25 per cent of its homes being affordable. Many are on the riverfront development sites.

"The important thing is delivery of the affordable housing," Cllr Chambers said.