Angry patients who found out their dentist is to close next year have contacted the landlords, claiming that they had raised rent too high.

Mr and Mrs Deer, the landlords of Church Hill Dental Practice in Ramsgate, have received messages from locals who indicate that they believe the reason it is closing is because the landlords have raised the rent too high to allow the NHS Trust to operate in the building.

But the couple have dismissed these claims, and say they deliberately kept the rent low in order to try and keep the NHS Trust as their tenants.

Mr and Mrs Deer said: "We negotiated a second lease with the Kent Community Health NHS Trust just last year, with terms and rent to suit the tenants.

"Because we wanted to keep the Trust as our tenants and to keep the dental surgery open, we deliberately kept the rent low – in fact at the same rent as when ADP were operating a dental practice there in 2006.

"The terms of the lease were such the Trust could have stayed in the building until the Autumn of 2021, if they wished to apply for and were granted the renewed NHS contract.

“The general public may not understand that the lease is not with the NHS but is with the Trust and that the Trust is responsible for paying the agreed rent.

“The Trust served notice to us, as their landlords, that they will break the lease with effect from March 31 next year.

"In fact, we first learned about their decision from a newspaper report because they did not formally contact us until after the patients began receiving the news at the surgery.

“The decision to close the dental surgery on Church Hill was not made by us as the landlords.

"Any further questions about the closure should be addressed to Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust.”