To feel really upset about the lack of scrutiny on new housing development in the countryside

They’ll destroy large parts of agricultural production as developers can make much more money on a green fuels site. But if you voted Labour that’s what you voted for. Own it.

YANBU. In order for 1.5 million houses to be built in 5 years Labour will have to tear up planning regs and objections from locals - however reasonable - will be ridden roughshod over.

It’s crap. What we needed was 50k homes a year over the last twenty years. Too late now.

But I’m glad I didn’t vote for them. Much will be lost.

I agree..in the end it isn't nimbyism or planning that's stopping building, it is the developers.

We need to sort out mass immigration and issues like second homes, empty homes, holiday homes. All new homes need to be as eco friendly as possible, attractive looking with suitable infrastructure for the population.

Otherwise it will be shit.

Yep, developers.

Did ANYONE think 'yay!' when Labour announced building thousands of new homes was their big reveal? Apart from the developers and building companies?

I wouldn’t worry. It won’t happen.

We live in a deprived area and every remaining area of so-called ‘green belt’ around us is earmarked either for industrial use or more and more housing despite lack of schools/doctors, massive traffic congestion etc.

We might be nimbys, but why aren’t poor people allowed any beauty or green spaces? Do we really need to concrete over every single piece of nature and make our already dog shit town a place with zero quality of life?

Like a pp said, it’s big developers who win. Nobody else. We just cram more and more people into little poorly built cheap boxes. Instead we should be strategic about the future and what kind of country we want - overpopulated with stressed out people in traffic jams with poor air quality? Or something more edifying?

There are lots of ex MOD sites around the country waiting to be built on but planning and infrastructure
is holding up progress. These are not countryside and they are appropriate for housing . I think the government has these sites in mind. Yes some greenfield might be built on like rural exception sites where housing needs to be offered for local people at affordable levels.

Some fringe areas of greenfield will be built on to extend cities and villages by moderate amounts. This isn’t going to threaten our access to the countryside- it will just be small pockets.

We need to get building quickly- it’s good for families and the economy. We need big investment to make it viable and do it properly though- will be worth the investment in the long run

If new homes are needed, the council will commission studies to see where the best area is to encourage development based on existing infrastructure. Then they’ll ignore that and let the developers build where they can get the most £/square metre. It happened where I used to live. The population increased greatly over 20 years, the council knew lots of new homes were needed and chose the best area for development. Them the new homes were built on the other side of town in the most expensive postcode. There are some lovely fields on the other side of town right next to a giant supermarket, a doctor’s surgery, easy A-road access to the neighbouring town and a motorway junction.

I dont want what remains of our farmland, woodland and green spaces built on, I'd rather there were less people.

We're losing wildlife habitats at a rate of knots, replaced with poor quality shitboxes with astroturf gardens, maybe serviced by some ring roads and dual carriageways to run more animals over and some retail parks so people can buy fast food and tat ro fill themselves and their homes up.

Grim.

Have you flown over it recently? Mile upon mile upon mile of untouched countryside.

It's not "untouched". It's the bit that produces the food.

If only it was that easy!

The town I live in has had an extra 5 developments with 1400 additional houses built in the past 4 years. All on greenfield sites. And despite promises of extra primaries and a secondary school, new GP and dentist and pubs, shops , playgrounds and parks there has been zero actual extra infrastructure

Yes you did read that right and yes those figures are correct. Once the development has begun the developers give zero fucks about fulfilling any S106 promises !

where I live there is a small group of local town councillors who are adamant that all housing will be placed in areas other than behind their homes

I'd expect nothing else
A dear friend bought a lovely house backing onto farmland in an exclusive village, and the first thing I said was "What if that's all sold for housing?" until I realised half the councillors live there too

I'd suggest asking what infrastrfucture's being planned for all these homes except it'll be a waste of time - depressing really

And in many areas they are just bought as second homes.

Do people really buy a new build on a new estate as a second home? I can understand them being bought as a buy to let but surely second home owners are buying cute fishermen’s cottages or swanky sea front apartments not family new builds in suburbia?

My brother in law has had his old factory site up for sale for 2 years. No developer is interested as it costs too much to build on brownfield apparently. They've built next door instead, on woodland. It's absolutely nuts.

@MrsSkylerWhite

"Around 9% of the UK is built on. The populations of other countries is irrelevant."

Actually it's way less than that and is 5.9%:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42554635.amp

That makes me so angry! The wildlife habitat is being destroyed. People just won’t stop until there is nothing left 🥵

Exactly. There is a housing development in the market town near me. It was earmarked for over 400 houses. The town simply does not have the infrastructure to support the number of people who want to live there. The schools are oversubscribed, the secondary school has been extended to accept another 250 pupils, but it won't be enough and the two GP practices and the dentist don't have enough spaces for the extra residents.

They've just built on historic woodland near me. We thought that it was going to be just houses. Upto now we have had a petrol station, Starbucks, Asda express etc and there's an aldi going up. None of these were needed and there were unused and never will be used again, factory land withinten minutes. But were they could have built, people don't want that postcode. Our bird population has really declined the last eighteen months because there's nowhere for fledglings to learn to fly and the cats are getting them. I completely agree OP.

Untouched? Do you mean farmland?

If we build thousands of houses in the countryside, and lots of solar farms, we aren't going to have much farmland left. So we'll end up importing more and more which could cause a lot of problems down the line.

More sweatboxes for those of us who havent reproduced. Yay

And in many areas they are just bought as second homes.

Starter homes or flats are what I think we need (round here anyway). Get younger people into the housing ladder. But no money in them, so dont get built.

Permission for new homes was agreed in our village. They created the access (cut down a hedge) and nothing has happened for over a year. Won’t get built till developer feels like it. That’s the other problem - there are loads of existing planning permission where the developer has just not built the houses because of random reasons (guess money). Build what’s been approved - that will help.

Let it stay that way for environmental reasons and the water supplies

EdithStourton
**
England is one of the world's most densely populated countries”

Have you flown over it recently? Mile upon mile upon mile of untouched countryside.

Around 9% of the UK is built on. The populations of other countries is irrelevant.

but it also raises questions on why it’s not been built on previously - the new housing area near me that’s being built on is on a flood plan. I doubt anyone would knowingly choose to live in an area that’s going to be a bog half the year . I suspect it will be left out of the advertising.

since the work started, two of the roads have been virtually impassable some days because all the natural drainage is gone- and one of them is the primary road to the nearest hospital. It actually terrifies me to think there won’t be hospital access during winter.