The new Labour government is barking up the wrong tree by setting councils ever higher housing targets, says a council’s cabinet member for planning.

Mike Taylor, who represents Borough Green at Tonbridge and Malling council, said: “Planners and Nimby’s keep getting blamed for resisting housing, but the simple truth is it is the developers and the building industry who are to blame for low numbers of new builds.”

Cllr Taylor (Independent Alliance Kent) said in the past his borough had approved plans for 600-odd houses a year - but the number built by developers was more like 400-a-year.

The current Tonbridge and Malling annual housing target is 839 but the government wants to hike that to between 1,000 and 1,200.

Cllr Taylor said: “If the industry can't exceed 400 per annum, what is the chance of their reaching 1,200?

“It isn't just the number of brickies, the entire industry has been on a downturn since 2005.

“It will take years for them to invest and get back up to speed.

“New sand and gravel extraction, new brick and block works and cement will be needed.”

That leads Cllr Taylor to his second concern.

His Borough Green ward, together with its neighbours Ightham, St Mary’s Platt and Wrotham have “the misfortune” of being an area with rich deposits of limestone, soft sand and gault - all needed for the building industry.

In his role as chairman of Borough Green Parish Council, Cllr Taylor has written to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, telling him: “Four of our local housing estates are built on past landfills, with all the dangers of contamination, subsidence and methane generation.

“For nearly 200 years we have suffered quarries and sandpits, with their inherent noise, dust and mud, blasting, and thousands of HGVs carrying extracted materials, but also carrying the output of associated industries that sprang up near their resources: brick and tile making, Tarmac and Readymix concrete.

“We suffered through these decades in the sure knowledge, originally pledges from operators, but later enshrined in planning law, that these extraction approvals were temporary, and at some point in the future there would be restoration back to our green fields, woodlands and farms.

“You have betrayed us by breaking that centuries-old promise, that pact.

“We understand the desperate need for housing, even our tiny rural communities are suffering, but there must be some equitable apportionment.

“There is already huge pressure on infrastructure, and any government initiative for housing must ensure the infrastructure is in place first - you cannot leave it to the free market.”

He told Mr Starmer: “You talk about the need for 1.5 million homes to be built during your term - if the 400,000 empty homes that already exist and 400,000 that already have been granted planning permission were built, that would be half your need fulfilled right there.”

Cllr Taylor is still awaiting a reply.