GOVERNMENT plans to transform the economic fortunes of north Kent and create tens of thousands of new jobs are being held back because too few youngsters are getting the right qualifications.

The claim has come in a report by the environmental group CPRE (Campaign for the Protection of Rural England) which examines what progress the Government has made towards building 120,000 homes and creating 180,000 jobs in the Thames Gateway area by 2016.

The CPRE report says educational attainment in Medway, Dartford, Gravesham and Swale lags behind the rest of the country by some margin and risks jeopardising the prospects for regenerating the Thames Gateway, including north Kent and Medway.

In all four areas, the percentage of working age securing qualifications in key vocational exams is as much as 12 per cent lower than the national average.

Across the country as a whole, 43 per cent of people have qualifications above NVQ level 3 or higher. The average for the whole of Kent is 42 per cent.

But in Medway, the figure is 34 per cent; Dartford 31 per cent; Gravesham 38 per cent and in Swale, 37 per cent.

The CPRE report warns: "The Thames Gateway will not meet its full regeneration potential unless the economy receives a substantial boost. But the economy will be held back until the relatively poor level of educational attainment in the area is improved."

But county council chiefs dismissed the report’s findings. Deputy KCC leader Cllr Alex King said: "It is unfair and premature. We are very well aware that the level of skills and attainment is crucial to attract the right investment and jobs. Everyone is pulling together to do that, including Greenwich University and the University of Kent."

CPRE Thames Gateway project leader Nigel Kersey said: "There is a great deal of rhetoric from the Government and local authorities about how the Thames Gateway will become an exemplar of regeneration and planning practise.

"It is time to look closely at how well the rhetoric is being matched by the reality."

A spokesman for the Department of Communities and Local Government said the Government was investing heavily in the area to raise standards.

She said: "The low attainment in education highlighted in the report is one of the reasons why we need to invest in the area. Crucially, we are still in very early days. A lot of progress has been made but equally there is a lot of work to do between now and 2016."