Declining property prices and the continuing economic downturn could force Kent County Council to put on hold a range of capital projects.

The county council is reviewing its entire capital programme after forecasting it is likely to be nearly £40million down on the amount it hoped to raise by selling off buildings and land it owns to developers.

County councillors ordered the review after finance chiefs estimated such sales would bring in nearly £66million this year, helping fund an extensive capital programme across all areas, including roads and schools.

But that estimate was made before the global credit crunch hit and KCC has been forced to revise its forecast and now says it only expected to make £26million this year.

While the sale of council assets represents only one source of income to pay for capital schemes, the uncertainty surrounding the economy means there is a question mark against many schemes that had been planned. It is not known how many could be affected.

Cllr Nick Chard (Con) KCC cabinet member for finance, said KCC would be considering a provisional list of projects that might be shelved this year but insisted they would not be postponed indefinitely. The council, which has a three-year capital programme, says it does not want to sell assets cheaply.

“Clearly we are not getting the capital receipts and we are acting as quickly as we can. There may be some we have to pull from the current programme but it will be more about timing. We need to have a clear idea about what is appropriate in the current conditions,” said Cllr Chard

Meanwhile, KCC has warned the building slow down could leave it short of money to pay for building new roads and other community facilities.

Developers have signalled that contributions they make to meet the costs of things like providing extra school places or new access roads to estates need to be scaled back.

Councils rely on so-called Section 106 agreements to ensure they are not out of pocket but the turbulent economy has made many developers more cautious about pushing ahead with house-building schemes.

Cllr Chard said: “We want regeneration but we also need to fund the infrastructure . There is a great deal of uncertainty about what prices developers think they can get.”