Tories would review Thames Gateway homes target

Plans to build 160,000 homes as part of the £9bn Thames Gateway regeneration would be fully reviewed by a Tory government.

Stewart Jackson, the shadow Thames Gateway minister, said a “forensic audit” of the scheme would look at whether current housing targets could ever be realised.

However, Jackson said reports that he said he would halt all spending in the area while an audit was conducted were exaggerated.

In his first interview since he made the comments at the Conservative party conference, he said the housebuilding targets had encouraged a “tick-box” approach to pushing through housing development.

He added: “The numbers are top-down, they bear no relation to the individual circumstances of localities. We plan to look at the wider economic context and ask whether those numbers are still appropriate.”

Jackson said the regeneration scheme, which has received £7.4bn of public money in the past six years, had shown a “lack of demonstrable outputs, double counting, and an opaque attitude to public expenditure”.

He also refused to guarantee the future of the two development corporations in the area.

He denied he would halt spending while the review took place. He said: “Clearly it’s not appropriate to stop spending halfway through major projects. But what is clear is that the present programme has not worked.”

Jackson’s comments come as doubt hangs over the future of the Thames Gateway, with London mayor Boris Johnson withdrawing funding for key transport schemes last week.

Gary Sullivan, chair of the Thames Gateway South Essex Partnership, said: “Stewart Jackson has made ill-informed comments about unaccountable public spending – well, it’s all accounted for.”