Energy minister and Kent MP Michael Fallon says the government has a duty to allow companies to explore for shale gas, saying it could bring down energy prices.

But his comments have been condemned by opponents of fracking in Kent, who say there is no evidence that shale gas will help cut bills.

Sevenoaks MP Mr Fallon was responding to the on-going protests at a site in West Sussex, where a company is facing opposition to its exploratory drilling.

He said: "There is shale gas everywhere in the UK and there is a survey being done into how much there is in the south east.

"If we can extract it and see energy costs fall as a result, we have a duty to look for it, whether it is in the south east or north west.

"People are entitled to protest - the search for shale gas is a new thing here and there is a lot of misinformation about but has already been running in the States for ten years.

"There is work to be done by developers and indeed by the government in getting more information across and reassuring people that shale gas can be extracted safely without damaging the environment or pollution.

"We need to explore whether it can be extracted here safely as it was in the USA."

A Welsh company has been given permission to sink a test borehole on farmland north of Woodnesborough, near Sandwich in east Kent, but has yet to start work.

It was granted a licence in 2011, but there has been no activity there since the application was approved by Kent County Council.

Rosemary Rechter, of the opposition group Deal With It, which is based in east Kent, said: "One of the reasons it was so much cheaper in America is that there was no regulation in place.

"The market was flooded with people doing it. It is an extremely risky policy. I do not think the technology is sufficiently well advanced to do it safely.

"We should be focusing instead on renewable energy not on an industry we know little about."

Stuart Cox, of East Kent Friends of The Earth, said: "The government's policy is wrong-headed and it should be concentrating on renewable sources of energy.

"We are very concerned about the large-scale industrialisation of the south east that fracking would cause."