A Medway business boss is backing Boris Johnson’s plan for a huge round-the-clock airport off the Isle of Sheppey, claiming it would be good for jobs, house prices and the local economy.

The Mayor of London is reported to be drawing up plans to build a giant terminal on an artificial island in the Thames Estuary off Sheppey. Mr Johnson is said to want to eventually close Heathrow and turn it into a business park.

Mike Lazenby, chief executive of the Chatham-based Kent Reliance Building Society, has been a long-time supporter of a potential new airport at Cliffe or off the Kent coast.

"Heathrow has a limited capacity and sooner or later, there is going to be another airport in ths country," Mr Lazenby said.

"If there’s an airport going, why can’t we have it in Kent? Kent is ideally placed. It would have a huge positive impact on the local economy. It would help businesses, property prices and be really good news for the county."

Any plans are fiercely opposed by council leaders and environmentalists. They might also interfere with growth strategies at Kent International Airport, Manston, and London Ashford, Lydd.

But Mr Lazenby says "not in my back yard" was no way to respond to the idea and failed to appreciate the benefits a new airport would bring.

"Everybody in business in Kent would benefit and people looking for a job in Kent would get a job. It makes total sense."

Meanwhile, Gillingham and Rainham MP Paul Clark has condemned the estuary airport proposal as "harebrained."

He said:" Proper and thorough consideration was given to an international airport in the Thames Gateway a few years ago. We argued and showed that such a scheme was unworkable on a number of fronts – financially, unrealistic transport links and environmental damage.

"But it looks as if the Tories have learnt nothing. Johnson's scheme would be even more costly than that proposed before. Links to the airport to and from Kent and Essex would bring serious issues; transport capacity bottlenecks would be extreme and environmentally the birds migrating to and from the internationally renowned north Kent estuary have not got away.

"This sort of Tory proposal to dump chaos on North Kent without a care towards local people reminds me of the years when the towns in Medway were neglected, under-funded and left to flounder when the Tories ran national and local government.

"This harebrained Tory airport proposal stinks and is just characteristic of the Tories in the 1980s and 1990s when they showed they did not care about the people of North Kent and the quality of their life."