But shadow minister denies he would halt spending on the 160,000 homes immediately

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

Stewart Jackson, the shadow Thames Gateway minister, said a 鈥渇orensic audit鈥 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 鈥渢ick-box鈥 approach to pushing through housing development.

He added: 鈥淭he 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.鈥

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

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: 鈥淐learly it鈥檚 not appropriate to stop spending halfway through major projects. But what is clear is that the present programme has not worked.鈥

Jackson鈥檚 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: 鈥淪tewart Jackson has made ill-informed comments about unaccountable public spending 鈥 well, it鈥檚 all accounted for.鈥

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