Dartford has a "bright future ahead" with a new garden city with 15,000 homes planned for Ebbsfleet and plans for Paramount Park progressing, according to council leader Jeremy Kite.

The News Shopper went on a tour of the borough with Mr Kite and we visited important sites across Dartford which have been earmarked for major developments including Ebbsfleet and the Swancombe Penninsula.

Chancellor George Osbourne officially told the House of Commons in the Budget on Wednesday and pledged to set up a development corporation and pump in £200million for the infrastructure to kick-start the major project.

Mr Kite said: "The Ebbsfleet announcement is great news for Dartford.

"Lots of people are negative and talk down about the town but we have so much to be excited about and a bright future ahead.

"In the last seven years we have brought about so many improvements across the borough and its an exciting place to be.

"We have got the Ebbsfleet plans which will help regenerate Dartford bringing more people to the borough and the plans for the theme park are just amazing.

"There are some of the world's leading experts developing the plans for Paramount Park which will be an immense asset to our area when it is completed."

Mr Kite added that "we have got make sure we get the infrastructure right and that the local people are listened to".

Four new villages will be created as part of the Ebbsfleet scheme and the homes will be built across the Eastern Quarry next to Bluewater just off Southfleet Road, Ebbsfleet Station and the Swanscombe peninsula near the Paramount Park site.

Hollywood film giant Paramount unveiled the £2 billion proposals to build one of Europe’s largest theme parks in Swanscombe in 2012 and the plans are being headed up by British designer Tony Sefton.

The theme park will create 27,000 jobs, the 872-acre development planned is bigger than the Olympic Park.

At the core of the development will be a Paramount-branded entertainment resort, boasting attractions including Europe’s largest indoor water park.

Theatres, live music venues, cinemas, restaurants and hotels are also planned to open in just six years time on the currently derelict brownfield site.

London Resort Company Holdings, the development behind Paramount Park, welcomed the Ebbsfleet plans.

A spokesman said it believes Mr Osborne's plans for 15,000 new homes in Ebbsfleet will "help to consolidate the exciting vision for the area".

The Chancellor's announcement is another boost to the plans after it was announced in December that Swanscombe would not be considered as a location for a new Thames crossing.

Dartford MP Gareth Johnson welcomed the budget and the news "there will be a prospectus published about the Ebbsfleet plans by Easter this year. It will put meat on the bones of this exciting proposal".