SENIOR Tory backbencher Sir Bernard Jenkin has said Government plans to build 300,000 homes per year would create a “circle of doom” for rural areas.

The Harwich and North Essex MP is said to be one of a group of discontented MPs unhappy with revised Government housing targets.

As part of a consultation on changes to the planning system, a new formula has been proposed for determining the housing need.

Sir Bernard fears as the new algorithm is based on population growth, it will add more houses to local authorities that were already building them.

The senior Brexiteer told the Mail on Sunday he would not vote for the plans and said forcing more houses on the country’s green spaces amounted to a “circle of doom for rural areas in the Home Counties.”

He told the newspaper: “I am not inclined to vote for a relaxation of the planning laws to make things easier for the mega-housebuilders when the real problem is a failure of local authority and powers to ensure that the right houses are built in the right places.”

Sir Bernard also warned the Government that if it pressed ahead with its plan, “it will generate such an adverse reaction that in the end it will stopped in its tracks.”

Sir Bob Russell, High Steward of Colchester, said: “Other than disagreeing with Sir Bernard’s comment about the ‘failure of local authorities’ – on everything else I agree with him.

“Johnson’s ‘build, build, build’ housing policy will force thousands more houses to be built in Essex and elsewhere, against the known wishes of local communities and local councils such as Colchester.

“It is a political fact that all 18 MPs in Essex are Conservatives.

“How many will support Sir Bernard Jenkin in his opposition?

“Or will they put their own personal political careers before those of the constituents they are supposed to represent?”