To be sad about houses being built on Greenfield sites

[Orangemochafrappacino]

Its rife in my village at the moment. There are a few brownfield sites but these seem to be being ignored and farmland is being snapped up for development instead.

The rulebook for this seems to be slowly being torn up by this current government and I'm now hearing stories of developers being able to purchase land on a forceful basis and even proceed building giant housing estates without proper planning permission.

Has anyone else noticed this in their local area? I understand houses need to be built but it seems completely nuts, we are going to have no farmland or trees left at this rate.

There are so so many problems with renting I agree but there are people who prefer to rent, my point was I know people personally who look down on those who rent as lesser people or something. A mum at my DC school who is friends with one of my good friends one day when we were all chatting got on about houses and asked how much I pay in rent, I’m lucky I pay quite low rent and she just started on about how I could have a mortgage for that price if I just lived on beans on toast to save up a ridiculous deposit. She made me feel inferior and I distance myself now

And on the subject of HS2 they are wanting to bring that through green space through Scotland, now green space gone. A lot of people are furious about it

Yes, this is happening where I live too. We have tons of brownfield sites which are going to ruin, but the council continue to say they have no choice but to allow greenfield development. Surprising that this government is allowing it as I would have thought this really hits their base hard, but I guess the building lobby gives a lot of donations. Of course builders are going to go for it, because it is cheaper for them than redeveloping old sites.

@Dontwatchfootball it just makes me so cross, they wax lyrical about climate change but build
Over the things that absorb carbon dioxide! So they’ll continue to build millions of houses whilst forcing people to drive electric car with no infrastructure for those either!

And that’s exactly the kind of response that shuts down debate and ensures we continue with a policy of just chucking up housing anywhere, anyhow without actually considering whether it is addressing housing needs or making things worse.

Someone already living there will think why are they building more expensive boxes, this will cause more congestion & locals can't afford it so there is no housing need. Someone renting perhaps in a nearby town will think great I can buy that property & have more space/escape renting, there is a housing need. Who is correct?

That's not to say things couldn't be improved but judging simply by housing need is completely subjective depending upon what side you are on.

There are so so many problems with renting I agree but there are people who prefer to rent, my point was I know people personally who look down on those who rent as lesser people or something.

I don't understand why people think this but they do tend to also think if you give up the fancy phone & avocados house buying is in your grasp. 🙄

@jihhy yes 😂

@jihhy that’s where I have gone wrong I need to give up those avocados I eat for breakfast lunch and dinner I’ll own by next week

@Weirdwonders

NIMBY is just the latest term being mobilised to divide us while the powers that be grab yet more of the country’s assets

Nimby doesn't apply for me my back garden is dominated by someone else's house as is my front and sides I dont have a view to care about but my town has a lot of green spaces and a lot of brownfield sites building on greenfield sites make zero sense unless your a developer

@ILoveAllRainbowsx. No it's because a few stand to make money......WE DON'T HAVE A HOUSING SHORTAGE

I voted remain & my parents are immigrants.

@ILoveAllRainbowsx

Funny, how no-one is saying whether they voted for or against Brexit isn't it.

A lot of Mumsnet want the advantages of being in the EU but not the disadvantages.

It serves them right. They call everyone who voted for Brexit racist, but because they aren't specifically complaining about immigration but about houses being built, they aren't racists.

Why can't you understand that the reason all your villages are being expanded is because of immigration.

Because my vote is my business not yours

Because my council were playing these games with housing way before brexit

*So the people to blame are:

single mums
immigrants
large families
second home owners

Not the property developers or their cronies in government? Not incompetent councils or greedy land owners? Not the government policies that prevent locals from blocking sites?*

Absolutely true groups are to blame as they create the demand. Unless we thing third children immigrants and single mums should live in a box. Then we need to increase housing stock. It's really not a difficult concept to understand is it?

Fascinating/depressing thread.

The fact that we are building crap houses that will need to be demolished in 50 years makes me so sad. I have lived in houses that were built 1880s-1930s and are still solid, functional and do the job. That modern house builders are not doing the same is a total disgrace.

I live in a city and feel very sad that the quality of life in the countryside is being degraded in this way. I think part of the solution is to make living in cities more attractive, with great schools and services and investment in green space. Then there won’t be so much demand to move out.

I am not living on planet "immigration is the cause of all evil"

I also think that as households get smaller we need to think more imaginatively about what housing we build. In countries like France/Germany with better urban housing stock, people live very happily for their whole lives in spacious purpose-built flats (not houses carved up in a weird way or horrible boxes built with the rental market in mind)

I saw a video the other day
It showed different cities & places in the world in the 1970s from the sky and from Google earth today
The amount of human colonisation is enormous !

I don't think that it will stop

Why can't you understand that the reason all your villages are being expanded is because of immigration.

I do understand it (and I voted Leave btw). Net immigration plays a significant role in housing demand; ONS numbers show women having 1.9 children on average in 2017, down from 2.2 children for their mothers' generation. There are undoubtedly some young adults living at home that would like to have their own property, but net migration was 313,000 in 2020 and is clearly a contributing factor.

I'm not casting judgement on the merits and demerits of immigration as it's a complex issue. There's also no point denying that there's a huge housing shortage in the U.K but surely there's a more top-down and creative solution than cramming more and more housing on Greenbelt land in the already highly congested South East? The Greenbelt was established for a good reason and shouldn't be concreted over so developers can make a lot of money.

The government likes to talk a good game on the environment but our town already has air pollution above the recommended limit. Building more houses and adding to the traffic log jams every day is hardly going to address this.

@tootingbeclido

I am not living on planet "immigration is the cause of all evil"

Then where are these immigrants going to live?

Yes, definitely. We live in suburbia but I definitely heard about Farmland which had a covenant for the locals being compulsory purchased and the same with the HS2 - very sad

@AlaskaThunderfuckHiiiiiiiii

It’s the banging on about climate change yet they build on green sites, the sites that absorb the carbon dioxide! Then a lot of people change their real garden for plastic grass and concrete the rest, I absolutely despair

Yes and flooding

Once you destroy countryside, it’s not coming back. Same with woodland. All the fields between me and the nearest town have been filled in with vast estates and the roads are completely clogged.

Councils have all these laudable schemes about cycling but, frankly, how many people cycle to get from A to B? Hardly any. Plenty of people drive somewhere for a leisure cycle, but who cycles to the supermarket? Or the school run? Or work? It’s inconvenient.

I think they choose Greenfield sites as purchasers like the idea of living in a countryside setting .Its also probably easier to churn up a nice big empty field than juggle cranes ,diggers and so on in town .We live not far from a small country town ,which had beautiful open fields and farmland adjacent .Now has been built on ,and no shared housing or first time buyer schemes at all .All 3 and 4 bed detached homes ! A School has been built amazingly .What happens when they run out of land altogether I wonder?