PLANS to build thousands more homes in Kent and the South East have been rejected at a public meeting.

The meeting in Maidstone on Wednesday had been organised by Kent’s Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) to discuss the South East England Regional Assembly’s proposals.

But SEERA chief executive Paul Bevan warned that unless more homes were built prices would rocket, homelessness would increase, and today’s children would have nowhere to live.

He said: "It is already an acute problem in Kent, more than anywhere else in the region. And it impacts on homelessness.

"There are 29,000 families having to share homes at the present time because demand is suppressed. If we don’t increase housing supply it is a certainty that prices and lack of affordability will increase."

His organisation was concerned about the quality of life and environment, but also about where our children will live.

"That is what we are trying to balance," he insisted.

The intention was to build on brownfield land, and to use surplus health and defence land. It told the Government there could be no growth without infrastructure.

Mr Bevan confirmed: "We need serious investment alongside the development. Things are very much stacked against the South East in terms of investment, and towards where the heartland of this government lie."

Cllr Richard King (Con) KCC transport and environment cabinet member was cheered when he said planning controls should be handed back to the local councils.

He said: "They represent you, and should be allowed to continue with the planning work we do on your behalf."

Dr Hilary Newport, director of CPRE Kent, asked: "Wouldn’t these homes be better built somewhere else where they might be desperately wanted?

"If 40 per cent are affordable homes, that means that 60 per cent are unaffordable - yet we have 80,000 empty homes in the region."