Behind the impressive figures and regeneration targets cited for Kent there are crucial planning conflicts which could stifle growth. In the wake of new legislation takes a closer look at the implication for Kent and its building industry.

AS KENT experiences the largest wave of investment in its history there are fears development could be thwarted by excessive regulation.

This is the fear voiced by many private land developers in the county who have increasingly found their projects curtailed or left floundering in an entrenched planning system.

Unsurprisingly there has been a mixed reaction to the recent sweeping changes in planning legislation made by the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004.

With aspirations for more than 200,000 new homes in Kent and the South East over the next 10 years, the Government has introduced the act to deliver what it hopes will mean "better plans and better planning decisions more quickly".

But critics in the housing industry fear it will over complicate planning procedures and make them less democratic.

Malcolm Harris, chief executive of Bovis Homes, spoke out publicly last year over the bureaucratic problems already being experienced by planning offices and it seems that grass root changes in the system now could turn this red tape jungle into a quagmire.

Under the new act, area Structure Plans and Local Plans will be phased out. A Regional Spacial Strategy policy will instead guide Regional Planning Bodies in the development of their region and a range of new Local Development Documents and a Local Development Scheme must be drawn up by each planning authority.

The public also gets a bigger role in the new look planning process. The legislation places greater emphasis on public consultation at an earlier stage of development proposals in the hope that objection and hostility can be addressed before a development reaches the planning application stage.

Compulsory purchase powers are widened and together these changes are intended to improve development control and speed up the handling of major infrastructure projects.

Speaking at the annual Thames Gateway seminar held at Brands Hatch this month, Jason Towell, head of planning and environment for solicitors Cripps Harries Hall said: "I have my concerns. I am particularly concerned with the new development plan system, and the danger of real uncertainty on what documents local planning authorities are truly making their development control decisions upon."

Echoing the call of Barton Wilmore planning director Huw Edwards for the Government to put its money where its mouth is, Bellway Homes land director Graham Clark said private developers in Kent were effectively being fed empty promises by Government target figures.

Presenting to the audience of developers and council representatives at the seminar, Mr Clark held up housing target figures pre and post the Thames Gateway planning initiative, which clearly showed the much-voiced government growth initiatives are failing to translate on the ground in Kent.

Between the revised plans, housing targets set by area planning bodies grew by only 100 homes, not the much-lauded increase in housing supply of Mr Prescott's Sustainable Communities Plan.