According to the Public Accounts Committee, the regeneration of Thames Gateway risks becoming a public spending ‘calamity’ because the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) is unable to manage the project.

It said the DCLG risked failure over the ambitious project because of poor planning and a disjointed approach.

The Thames Gateway regeneration project is centred on the 40-mile area between Canary Wharf in London and the mouth of the River Thames. The Government is planning 160,000 new homes and hopes for 180,000 new jobs by 2016. If successful, it could add £12bn per annum to the economy.

However, Edward Leigh, the committee’s chairman, said: “It still amounts to little more than a group of disjointed projects which do not add up to a programme which is purposeful and moving forward. The department, at present, is manifestly not up to the job of managing the enormous ambitious enterprise of regenerating the Thames Gateway region.”