Communities like Northfleet and Swanscombe will be swallowed up by a new garden city at Ebbsfleet, according to housing experts.

Daniel McLeish, the engineering manager for Bovis Homes, based in New Ash Green, raised concerns about development in the area in a report on regeneration in the Thames Gateway.

He said the new town, which is due to create 15,000 homes, is in dire need of a new Thames Crossing to ease congestion.

He added there is a need for a powerful body like Ebbsfleet Development Corporation, which looks after planning of the garden city, to look at the Thames Gateway as a whole, which covers east London, south Essex and north Kent.

Mr McLeish said: “I don’t see a co-ordinated drive to get north Kent development moving again.

“Development seems to be piecemeal and sporadic, and whilst the Ebbsfleet Development Corporation has now been set up, there doesn’t appear to be a body looking at the region as a whole.

“I do see there is a risk that communities such as Swanscombe and Northfleet are lost in the major development of the area.”

Howard Gilroy, finance and administration manager at Britannia Refined Metals in Gravesend, said the garden city could have a wider negative impact on surrounding towns.

He said: “The construction of attractive new residential developments outside the traditional town envelopes may be popular with developers but they will simply accelerate the decline of the existing towns.

“The centre of Gravesend at 8:30pm on a weekday evening is a ghost town of deserted streets and boarded up shops.

"Ebbsfleet is working with local communities and there are no plans to provide anything that would detrimentally affect either of these High Street areas...” - Robin Cooper, Ebbsfleet Development Corporation

“Town centre regeneration is more sustainable than out-of-town housing development which simply generates more traffic as every journey then requires a car.”

The comments were part of a report by law firm Thomson Snell & Passmore marking 10 years since it opened an office in Dartford.

Over 52,000 new homes and 58,000 new jobs are to be delivered over a 20-year period across the Thames Gateway.

Thomson Snell & Passmore senior associate Alex Lewsley said: “The building of what is being branded as Ebbsfleet garden city is a given.

“It may not be completed before 2020, but I have no doubt that housebuilding is back in the Thames Gateway albeit with the supply-demand dynamic being more controlled by landowners and developers to protect sale prices.

“The role and impact of the Ebbsfleet Development Corporation in this will be interesting.”

Ebbsfleet Development Corporation said the leaders of Graveseham and Dartford borough councils are on its board to ensure any development does not damage nearby towns.

It also has several local councillors on its planning committee.

Chief executive Robin Cooper said: “The boundary of the garden city is laid out in law and is designed to build a new development using the old quarries and industrial areas in North Kent – classic brownfield land.

“Dartford and Gravesham High Streets are some distance from the new garden city.

"Ebbsfleet is working with local communities and there are no plans to provide anything that would detrimentally affect either of these High Street areas.”