Plans to build a new city in north Kent are put forward

The MP for Wokingham, Berkshire, wants to see the city of Thames Reach built at Greenhithe and Swanscombe.

But the plan has been criticised as "mind-boggling" by Dartford's MP, who said it would "concrete over" farmland, green belt land and villages.

"We are talking about the nicest parts of north Kent, villages of which people are very proud," Dr Howard Stoate said.

We need more than just a string of industrial estates and housing estates. Why not have a new city? John Redwood MP

Speaking to BBC Radio Kent, Mr Redwood, who was educated in Canterbury, said his scheme would replace some of the government's existing house-building plans for the South East.

"We need to build many more houses than most of us living in the South East would like," he said.

"I think the east Thames corridor is about the only area where we could reach political agreement."

The shadow secretary of state for deregulation said the area was the one place in the South East where the government was investing in transport and communications, and where there was land which could be reclaimed or re-used.

"We need more than just a string of industrial estates and housing estates," he said.

"Why not have a new city?"

But Dr Stoate said the Berkshire MP had "little understanding" of the character or needs of communities in north Kent.

He said: "The Tories have clearly decided that none of the extra housing that the South East needs is going to be put in their own heartland areas such as Surrey or Berkshire, and they have hit on north Kent as a politically acceptable alternative."

He added existing government development plans for north Kent brownfield sites were for Dartford's Eastern Quarry, the Swanscombe Peninsula and Ebbsfleet.

Mr Redwood's plans were for green belt land between Northfleet and Greenhithe with Swanscombe, Bean and Darenth to the south, Dr Stoate claimed.