The death of the British countryside

[Dappy777]

I have lived in north Essex since 1998. When we moved here, this was a small village on the outskirts of a quiet market town. In the last ten years, it has been ruined. My local woods have been hacked down to make way for two huge new estates, and at the other end of the village a second giant housing estate has been built. Now we've been told the fields in the centre of the village are going to be built on as well. The traffic is so bad that the country lanes, which were meant to take the odd tractor and a few cars, now have the sort of congestion you'd expect on the M25. The main road into town is also having 500 new houses built along it. That road is choked with traffic now, so what the hell is it going to be like when 500 extra cars are added?

This beautiful weather has really brought it home to me. My sister lives in a village 30 miles from here, and it's exactly the same where she is. In fact, it's worse. Everywhere I go they are jamming more and more disgusting rabbit hutch 'houses' on top of one another. Instead of bird song, all you hear is the drone of cars and the screeching and backfiring of idiot boy racers. I think we really are living through the death of the British countryside. There will still be fields and trees, of course, but the countryside as I knew it will soon be gone forever.

What sickens me is that I know the left get a kick out of all this. They seem to think that everyone in the countryside is a rich, fox-hunting 'Tory' in a big mansion. In reality, the vast majority of so-called 'nimbys' are just ordinary people who've worked hard and desperately want a bit of peace and quiet. My sister has devoted 30 years to the NHS, as has her husband. They've slogged their guts out to buy a little semi-detached house in a village. Now that village is being destroyed around them.

Is it just here in the south east? Or is this happening in other parts of these islands?

Less than 6% of Britain is built on. So to say that the countryside is ‘dying’ is wrong.

Villages being swallowed up into suburbs is a slightly different issue, and the quality of houses being built is another one.

I don’t think you’re right to say that the place you live in has been ‘ruined’. It’s been changed, and you don’t like the change. I can see how that would be upsetting. However the place obviously appeals to the hundreds of people who’ve bought those new houses.

You’re lucky to live in the SE. Since 1998 your parents properly will have gone up in value many times over, outpacing not just wage growth but house price growth in other regions. You could buy a deserted countryside castle in the North! You certainly have many options if you want to move to a quieter place.

People need to live somewhere. The plot your house is on used to be a field or woodland. Why is it ok for you to live there and not other people?

"What sickens me is that I know the left get a kick out of all this". What a bizarre thing to say. When the population is rising and people need places to live, what's supposed to happen? Would you prefer everyone else to live in a high rise in London, so you can live in your peaceful village and keep the countryside as it is?

I agree it's desperately sad that nature is being destroyed, but this is the result of successive governments failure to protect it, from the left and the right. People come to the south east for work. If there was better infrastructure and investment in other parts of the UK maybe there would be more economic opportunity elsewhere and the population would be distributed more evenly. A lot of industry in the north has pretty much ceased to exist and along with it, jobs. This is a pattern that's repeated all over the world.

I live in the countryside. Yes, we absolutely see expansion from market towns with new estates and transport hubs being built. Our nearest village has had a small estate of about 20 houses built on it. Next one over similar with about 10 houses. Like you say, this has all happened maybe in the past 5-15 years. It’s because of population growth. People have to live somewhere. 🤷🏻‍♀️ A lot of Londoners and folks from Home Counties moving down here.

That said, you mention the Left, but surely this has nothing to do with Labour policies. These estates were built in strong Tory times, as is the long term housing plans for our parish, which were developed probably 15 years ago. We live in a very Tory area and they have been very pro new housing at the council level. Actually, all the land for new estates sold off by big landowners (I have an uncle who made ££££ and pretty much doubled the size of his village).

We are lucky to have lots of natural wild space near us. Though again, where it gets restricted is by big landowners. One very close to us has launched a multi-million £ effort to keep people from recreating on land he owns, using footpaths lawfully, etc. I think the countryside is certainly pressured, but so are urban areas. And the changes we’ve seen over the past decade with housing policy, etc have nothing been ones developed by the so-called ‘Left’.

The UK apparently is the most wildlife depleted country in the world. Most of the non build on land is farmland rather than countryside.

When we moved into our house I could hear a skylark singing and it's there every Spring. I can still hear it, but our area has been built on massively recently and I fear that there'll come a time when I no longer hear him and he'll be gone forever.

Loss of habitat is only going to get worse because our population is increasing so rapidly. I hope that future generations may care more than the current governments, but they probably won't and will concrete over everything, poison the waterways, kill everything and fill up the place with trash.

https://stateofnature.org.uk/

www.whatthesciencesays.org/how-much-farmland-is-there-in-the-uk/#:~:text=It%20is%20commonly%20stated%20that,of%20the%20UK%20is%20farmland.

Farmland is usually wildlife depleted due to pesticide use and it being unsuitable for birds and animals. Greenery doesn't equal wildlife. It might give the impression of being wildlife friendly, but it's not.

What sickens me is that I know the left get a kick out of all this.

I was broadly on your side until I read this. What a ridiculous attitude. Apart from anything else, are you seriously trying to suggest that this has only been an issue since July 2024? Oh no, your post specifically cites 'the last ten years''. So how is this an issue of 'the left', exactly?

I agree with you OP. It's why I gave up living in the south east years and years ago. I currently live in a very remote rural location and so far the worst that has happened is a proposed solar farm (although it will be 'hidden' in fields in a fairly inaccessible dip, and won't be obvious).
People seem to like suburbia, heaven knows why. Wildlife is very depleted in many places, we've lost millions of trees over the decades. It's all very sad.

All of us with gardens can do a little to help, but most don’t. Stuff like no-mow May (which I do in one patch all year round), planting native wildflowers, leaving out water for wildlife. Also driving less and walking more.

Those vast swathes of woodland planted with pine are some of the worst areas. They're cut down and replanted periodically as well.

I do think it's a shame. Of course where I live used to be fields, but there are also plenty of plots that are brownfield that are deserted. Plenty of boarded up shops, houses, flats in the suburbs I drive through on my way home. It just costs far less to buy up farm land and build on there than it does to clear old factories, knock down flats.

I don't believe the left get a kick out of it. But I don't think they care about small town/ villages as much as they care about building homes anywhere there is space for them, no matter the infrastructure or wildlife. The developers are going to do very well out of this.

I'd like to know this too @Dappy777 . Seems very strange to blame the left.

It’ll only get worse when the only way for farmers to avoid massive Inheritance Tax bills is to sell land off to keep the total value under the threshold or have to sell land to pay the tax bill! It won’t be other farmers buying it it’ll be developers. They’ll carry on building their ‘luxury small developments’ of 5 or 6 4/5 bed houses which get signed off piecemeal outside of the parish plan with no money given to infrastructure projects/schools/healthcare. There is already zero decent secondary provision round here because of the under investment by the council who have relied on the private sector for years to pick up the slack…

I live on a farm. We do use pesticides, the minimum required to grow our crops successfully.
We have so much wildlife on the farm. We grow crops and also have livestock.
Off the top of my head we have the following wildlife seen very regularly:
Badgers, deer, rabbits, hares, moles, mice, voles, stoats, all kinds of songbirds & garden birds, buzzards, sparrow hawks, kites, frogs, toads, lots of insects, bees etc, we see beautiful dragonfly’s every summer.
We don’t do any “pest control” here.
If the farm was ever built on, these animals would not be here. We live and farm alongside them.
I understand not all farms are the same but it’s unfair to say farmland is unsustainable for birds & animals.

I agree. I work in nature conservation and the right are generally reviled for how they've handled the last ten years.

Edited to say I'm not sure many are impressed with the lefts approach either but they certainly aren't worse!

I get you OP. It's the same here in what was once rural Bedfordshire. The agricultural land around here is being built on at a rate of knots.

Where do people think their veg, milk, potatoes, fruit, meat & cereals come from?

I'm "the left", and I live rurally. Why the fuck are you taking a swipe at us- there are very few left wing housing developers! Blame unbridled capitalism instead.

The ‘I know the left get a kick out of this’ statement is pathetic and makes me wonder if you are a Tufton street bot.

However, as someone who has lived in the South for the last 30 years, I feel qualified to answer your question.

There is a huge building program around here. There are plans for thousands of houses to be built. Yes, it is changing the landscape, but it is needed.

There has been a lack of building of new homes for decades. They’re aren’t enough houses for the population ( and don’t blame the boat people). The only real building that has happened in my small town over the last decade has been very expensive retirement villages or 4 bedroom executive homes. Nothing for the young people who are desperate to move out of their parents home, but simply can’t because of the lack of affordable houses.

Yes, areas of previous farming land is now housing and yes, some of it looks awful, but there is still a lot of protected woodland and areas of natural beauty that are still here and won’t be built on.

This new housing will keep young people in the area and that can only be good news.

Where do you think people should live?

Have you read the State of Nature report linked above?

Ah yes, the left wing government of the last 15 years and those left wing property developers! What we really need to protect the British countryside is more free market capitalism and to axe all environmental regulations!

The UK is one of the most nature depleted. nations in the world. The UK especially England is also densely populated with humans. Worldwide, biodiversity is diminishing as humans overpopulate and over consume. Humans are part of the same system as plants. trees, animals. Humans cannot survive independently no matter what the AI Techs would have us believe. Regrettably future generations will bear the brunt of this madness which no political party left or right want to address as they are all wedded to the religion of economic growth rather than doughnut economics prioritising recycle repair and reuse. I try not to think of the coming climatic devastation and remain eternally grateful that i could choose not to have children.

I don’t agree that they should stop building housing as we are desperately in need of it. Many people are literally homeless and cannot afford to pay exorbitant rents that are going up every year.

We need to put policies in place to ensure that housing is not crammed in and has space for nature to thrive so we are living with it not excluding it. Retaining trees, hedges and ponds where we can.

We also need infrastructure as part of the planning process, access roads improved with paths and cycle lanes so you don’t need to drive everywhere. The existing public rights of way could also be improved with decent surfacing and routes added to that were shown as existing on old maps.

Solar should be a condition on every new build.

Farmers around here have been desperate to get their land included in the local plan for years and well before IHT was announced! It’s very lucrative for them as they get massive uplift payments on anything sold.