COUNTY Hall’s Tory leader says Kent could soon quit the south east’s unelected regional assembly.

Conservative council leader Sir Sandy Bruce-Lockhart said he had already taken soundings with other county councils about giving up their seats on the unelected South East England Regional Assembly, SEERA.

Any decision to leave would be a serious blow to the assembly which is under fire after suggesting Kent and the south east could have thousands more homes than even the Government wants.

Sir Sandy confirmed behind-the-scenes talks were underway among mainly Conservative councils who wanted to reassess their future with the 111-member assembly.

He said: “After the referendum in the north, it is quite clear the tide of regionalism has changed. My view is that the assembly fulfills no useful purpose. It is remote, bureaucratic and wastes public money and we should be asking questions about what it is for.

“We got on quite well without it seven years ago when local authorities simply co-operated with each other. I have been contacting county council colleagues who all want to raise this issue but we would want to take into account how the other district councils felt.”

Any decision would be made “over the next two to three months” and was not solely related to the on-going row over house-building.

“There is always the argument that you need to be at the table to argue your case but we have to re-assess whether that is now valid.”

He hinted a decision to quit SEERA, an organisation that spends more than £3million of public money each year, could hinge on whether the Government was prepared to give back to local councils the powers it had taken, including house-building targets.

Meanwhile, Conservative leader and Folkestone and Hythe MP Michael Howard joined the fray, urging the Prime Minister to abolish SEERA.

“The people have spoken – regional assemblies are dead. Why doesn’t the Prime Minister bury them?”