Villages and suburban areas will have to take their share of development to meet housing needs, the Towns' planning chief has warned.

Medway faces a massive shortfall of homes and needs to build up to 2,000 new dwellings a year to catch up.

The council's head of planning Dave Harris said villagers and those in semi-rural and suburban areas will not be immune from building proposals.

Planning officers are working on producing the first draft of Medway's new Local Plan which will set out the authority's planning policy and new housing allocation for the next 15 years.

He was speaking during a lengthy debate on controversial plans for 225 homes in Cliffe Woods in which councillors spoke about concerns relating to building on agricultural land, villages losing their character and suggestions there was not the demand to warrant rural areas being developed.

Mr Harris said: "To meet our requirements, we will be looking at the urban area to play and important role and the Hoo area.

"We will still need suburban expansion and the villages to play a part in that.

"While I respect the views of the ward councillors, parish council and the residents, there is a need to provide housing to support services in those villages and provide demand from within those villages."

Developers have reported to the council a sharp demand for new homes in Medway, how busy they are and with the majority of homes being sold off plan, Mr Harris said.

"In Medway, we have no five year housing land supply," he added. "The government housing target for us – because we have no housing land supply and we've got to provide a 20% buffer – takes us to a requirement for 2,000 dwellings a year.

"We will still need suburban expansion and the villages to play their part"

"If we do not meet that, the government have been clear they will not be backing off."

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said the country must "build, build build" in order to generate employment out of the recession caused by the Covid-19 crisis.

The government says the country must build 300,000 new homes a year.

Mr Harris added: ""We simply haven't delivered, as a nation, enough housing in the last 30 years and therefore there is a dire need.

"The addition to that is the need to provide affordable housing and deal with that issue. There's also the need to help with regard to homelessness."

Read more: All the latest news from Medway