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They wrote to the deputy prime minister on Monday because, six months after he announced that up to 200,000 homes would be built in the Gateway, they claim they have received no guidance on medium-term housing targets or the planning process, despite repeated requests to civil servants.

"There's a lot of numbers bandied about, but we need firm targets on housing," said Mike Gwilliam, director of planning and transport at the South-east England Regional Assembly. "They need to say very clearly what the plans are for the Gateway and how we're going to get them approved."

Gwilliam and his counterparts in the Greater London Authority and the East of England Regional Assembly said they had asked civil servants at the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister to clarify housing targets as they prepare regional planning guidance but had received no answers.

They also want to see guaranteed funding for infrastructure from the Department for Transport, particularly for Crossrail.

The Cabinet committee on the Thames Gateway, chaired by Tony Blair, was due to publish a report in May that would outline the scale of development and investment required in the Gateway and how it would be funded. However, the committee was delayed indefinitely after war broke out in Iraq.

Neither is there any indication yet as to how the powerful urban development corporations promised for London and Thurrock will affect the planning process.

The establishment of the London UDC has been delayed until April next year, because legislation into the extent of its planning powers is required before it can proceed. It is understood that this legislation will go before the Commons in autumn.

A spokesman for the ODPM said: "We know that people on the ground in the Gateway are keen to press on and we hope to be able to give them a very clear steer on how and where development will take place very shortly."

It is understood that the government's next move will be the announcement of four or five key sites for infrastructure works, as well as progress reports on the other three growth areas in Milton Keynes, Ashford and the M11 corridor. This is likely to come before the end of July.

Meanwhile, research conducted on behalf of the South East England Development Agency has found that the three growth areas that fall within its boundaries – Gateway, Ashford and Milton Keynes – are not the areas with the greatest housing affordability problem.

Consultant Roger Tym and Partners also found that 63% of applicants for public sector jobs cited high housing prices in the South-east as a barrier to accepting positions.

The South East Regional Housing Board will ring fence several million pounds of single pot funding for innovative ideas, from 2005-6. Details of the plan are sketchy, but Gwilliam said: "There will be an innovation fund of a few million pounds. We will invite people to come up with ideas which we can test out."