WHO would want to live on a floodplain at the foot of the Dartford tunnel, stuck between sewage works, a sink estate and a power station? Quite a lot of people, says Wayne Hemingway, the fashion designer turned property guru.

In fact, Hemingway is so confident that the location will be a hit that he has designed 1,500 new homes to be built by the developer Taylor Wimpey on a 267-acre site. On a plot the size of 24 new Wembley stadiums, there will be houses and flats, shops, offices, warehouses, a primary school for 480 pupils and a science park. This project, named The Bridge after the neighbouring Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, is one of the first major regeneration schemes within the redevelopment of Thames Gateway. It is exactly the sort of development that will pave the way for the three million new homes that Gordon Brown wants to see built across Britain by 2020.

Walking along the wild marshes that separate the development from the banks of the Thames, it is hard to see so far into the future. The site is a bizarre mix of untamed nature and industrial wasteland. Horses graze in meadows next door to corrugated-steel warehouses. The little pebbly beach looks perfect for a paddle, despite being so close to sewage works and opposite a dockyard. The wild areas that make up the Dartford, Erith and Crayford Marshes to the north of the development are staying exactly as they are, to help to contain flooding.

Sea levels are rising, and the possibility of the area flooding in future years is a potential risk. The development has been raised by six metres as a preventative measure; within its boundaries there will be more green space. There are already two lakes, complete with water voles, and hundreds of mature trees, which were donated by Kew Gardens almost a century ago, in the days when the site was a smallpox hospital.

A mix of terraces, detached houses and flats will be arranged in quadrangles and circles, with private gardens backing on to each other and communal spaces in the middle. Each property will look slightly different. There are 22 varieties of houses, from two-bedroom terraces to four-bedroom detached homes. Some are finished in render, others in brick and wood cladding. Low-rise blocks of one, two and three-bedroom flats are dotted among the houses.

There will be a few homes with built-in garages. But, for most, walkways will get you from your front door to the school, shops and offices. Cars are relegated to car parks at the end of a row of terraces, where you will also find an enclosed hub for the bins and recycling. “Fences are deliberately low to encourage residents to talk to their neighbours,” says Lee Monk, of Taylor Wimpey. So far the design, inspired by new developments in the Netherlands and Germany, has gone down well. Buyers have already snapped up more than 75 per cent of the 236 homes that went on sale a few months ago.

Unlike many other schemes of this size built by mass-market developers, much of the infrastructure here is already in place. Empty Fastrack buses glide through deserted roads taking phantom customers to Dartford in five minutes or Bluewater shopping centre in less than 15. From 2009 the buses will also stop at the new Eurostar terminal at Ebbsfleet, where a high-speed train will whisk you to London in 17 minutes. At the moment, the journey from Dartford to Victoria station takes about an hour.

Apart from a handful of homes earmarked for first-time buyers, this is not the place to find a bargain. A one-bedroom flat costs from £175,000, while two-bedders start at £220,000. A three-bedroom terrace house costs £350,000. There is one four-bedroom detached home left at £400,000. Given that you can buy a four-bedroom home in the Dartford area for between £210,000 and £250,000, The Bridge looks particularly expensive, albeit of much better quality and design than the competition.

Residents here will be living near building sites for years to come as the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth phases of the scheme are built. And, although there will be shops near by, nobody knows whether residents of The Bridge will be buying their milk at Costcutter or M&S.

Then there are the neighbours. Temple Hill, the council estate next door, has a grim reputation. Many of the tiny houses are rundown, and those that are not sulk under massive electricity pylons. It’s the sort of place where you expect to see a fight outside the kebab shop. One post on the ChavTowns website (www.chavtowns.co. uk) borrows from Star Wars and describes the place as a “wretched hive of scum and villainy”. Nobody said regeneration was easy. SUSAN EMMETT

www.thebridgedartford.co.uk 0845 6760155

For reviews of cutting-edge architecture in up-and-coming areas, go to timesonline.co.uk/newhomes

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