Developers want the government to release 1,200 acres of green belt land so that they can fund and build a town of 14,000 new homes in the heart of the Thames Gateway growth area.

Thamesgate, the consortium that includes the housebuilder Bellway Homes, the developer Colonnade and architects Allies and Morrison, has secured an option to buy 2,000 acres from 68 landowners in East Tilbury and Linford in south Essex, 60 per cent of which is in the green belt. It is offering to spend up to Pounds 1bn on the scheme, depending on the amount of affordable housing provided.

The scheme would be the biggest of its kind on Thames Gateway, the 40-mile corridor east of London designated by the government as a growth area to help ease a chronic housing shortage in London and the south-east. John Prescott, deputy prime minister, wants 120,000 homes built along the Thames Gateway by 2016, 80 per cent of them on brownfield land.

Unveiling its plans this week to a largely hostile reaction from residents, the consortium said the scheme fitted the government's criteria for sustainable development, and would represent "an easy win" in the task of regenerating Thames Gateway. However, residents are concerned it will destroy the local character of East Tilbury and Linford.

Housebuilders have frequently expressed frustration at the slow pace of progress in the Thames Gateway, blaming a drawn-out planning system and the reluctance of ministers to commit to the necessary infrastructure costs to support new communities.

John Slaughter of the Housebuilders Federation said: "These brownfield costs are extra issues from the developer's point of view. If we haven't got the infrastructure funding in place to go with that, we may have trouble generating value for the development."

The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister denied that plans for development in the Thames Gateway were moving slowly.