To find the extent of planned housebuilding terrifying?

[IRememberWhenThisWasFields]

NM for this as I don't want my previous posts to be too outing of where I live. Hope that's okay.

The background is that I live in a semi-rural area in England, in a village of approximately 2,000 people. It doesn't even have a shop. Our nearest town is about 10-15 mins walk away, population already around 20k. In recent years the town has increasingly encroached on our village.

Currently, the local council is having a consultation of where future housebuilding should take place, and I'm honestly so shocked at the amount of land that has been offered up.

Farmland on what feels like all directions has been earmarked for largescale future development. I know that we have a housing crisis in this country, but I feel like I could cry.

Many of the areas are where I've spent countless happy hours walking and where I regularly see owls, hares, deer and foxes. It's well known that access to nature and green spaces is hugely beneficial to one's mental health, and to think that these wonderful quiet, peaceful, green areas could be lost for more houses, traffic, pollution, noise, likely crime...it's just so sad.

And of course, it all comes from the national government and their target of wanting to build over one million more houses this government, no matter where they're placed, and seemingly with very little thought for infrastructure or how small communities are changing almost beyond all recognition. How people who've lived in these communities for generations are increasingly turning to anti-immigration rhetoric from parties like Reform, in part due to their areas changing so rapidly.

All anyone can say is "we need more houses"...yes, but is the only solution the increased destruction of our countryside? When will it end?

I know people currently searching for a house or who are used to living in built up areas will have no sympathy with this. I know I'll already get the predictable response of "well, your house probably used to be a field", ignoring the simple fact that we now have far less space than we did 50 or 100 years ago.

But AIBU, or does anyone else feel a similar way to me?

I didn’t pass any comment on whether the figure was too high or too low.

What figure do you think immigration needs to be at?

Oh and the TENS OF THOUSANDS of council owned empty properties....

Part of the problem is we have an aging population. I'm mid 30s. My grandparents moved from a 4 bed house to a 2 bed bungalow when they were around 70. By 70 they were both, definitely old (mind they did live until 90+). My parents are now nearing 70 and have absolutely no plans to downside from their 4 bed house. They are fit and active and living the retirement dream in a house they worked their arse off to own. In fact, both my neighbours are elderly people living alone in their former family homes with at least 2 bedrooms to spare.

They don't need the space they have, but should they be forced to downsize?

No. But because they have a 4 bed house, someone who has a 3 bed and needs a bigger house can't live there, which means someone who has a 2 bed and needs a bigger house can't live there etc etc. it's all a big long chain and the people at the top of it are living longer and healthier than their predecessors.

Someone up thread is right, population is shrinking (I think) and before long we'll have too many houses, but people need houses now. We need affordable houses now (more like 20 years ago...).

It's shit and hardly anyone wins. The 'newcomers' face backlash from 'locals' despite doing absolutely nothing wrong.

And herein lies the problem. There are people in this country that think 430k net immigration is no big deal.

What number do you think it should be?

@friskybivalves
I have a good example - Bordon in Hampshire. A garrison town. When the army left they pulled down the rubbish housing, converted some of the more interesting buildings and build decent houses on wide streets with green spaces, new schools and and amenities. It's still surrounded by the training ranges which go on for miles.
It's nice - but not on a train line so the community isn't all London commuters.
It had years of consultation and development though.

Compare this to the over development of Whitley also in Hampshire with many sprawling soulless estates .

It just needs s better plan than build a million houses every year.

How about zero, just for the same number of years it's been between half a million and a million people. See where we are then? Things might be better. You don't know if it would be or not, any more than anyone else does. 'But the NHS!!' posts incoming...

This is one of the most ignorant posts I've ever read

I was in this area today and I totally agree. Really well thought out, and good use of land.

It makes me want to scream. I live in rural Essex, and in the last ten years my local woods have been hacked down to build two massive new estates. At the other end of the village, a huge estate has been built, and now we’ve been told the fields in the centre of the village are going to be built on as well. As if that wasn’t enough, the main road into town is going to have 500 new homes added. That road is choked with traffic now, so what the hell it will be like when an extra 500 cars are added I can’t even imagine. Anyone out there who lives in a city and thinks they are going to retire to the countryside is living in La La land. By the time most of us retire, there won’t BE any countryside.

And it’s never enough. No matter how many of these disgusting rabbit hutches they jam on top of one another, we always need more, more, more. I know I’ll get flamed for this, but immigration is driving the demand. I often walk through these new estates, and I know other people who live near them. Judging from what I have seen and heard, and from the languages spoken, I would guess that at least half the people on these new estates were not born in the U.K. Everywhere I go in my home town, I see groups of young immigrant men wandering around, often in the middle of a weekday. Our politicians have made it perfectly clear they are not going to do anything about immigration, and I know Labour are secretly enjoying the misery of us Daily Mail reading NIMBYs. And yes, you bet I’m a f*cking NIMBY!! I want fields and trees and peace and quiet, not endless houses and cars and noise. What an extremist huh?!🙄

the lack of builders will be interesting

I agree OP. The British countryside is being ruined, replaced with tarmac and ugly housing. Grim.

You have provided a three year old report from GB News (so hardly a reliable news source).

The uptick in foreign investment happened from 2024.

Building more homes isn't the answer - don't have the space, infrastructure or skilled workers to build them.
Many houses being built really aren't suitable ie lots of luxury but not basic, more affordable housing (tho that's all relative)
Need to deal with migration - get it down.
Look at current housing stock - limit student accommodation, second homes, holiday lets, barely used homes.Empty homes brought back into use.....
Need to prioritise owner occupied properties/ look at LL renting properties at reasonable prices ......

This is exactly the point. No-one’s denying the need for housing, but it’s the way it’s being done.

Shoving up soulless housing estates on fields willy-nilly, with no thought as to whether the location is suitable, or can accommodate the extra people. Roads that can’t handle any more traffic, GPs and schools that are already full, no shops within miles etc etc.

Concreting over much-loved areas of green space, parks, woodlands, meadows which are important to, and used by, the people who already live there.

Hundreds of ugly, badly built little boxes shoved together with barely any breathing space because the housing developers only care about their profits and don’t care about designing a place that will be nice for people to actually live in.

Examples like Borden show how it can be done but there aren’t enough of them.

So you really don't care at all for the environment or nature, then?

Imagine if somewhere like Brazil was facing a housing crisis, but had decided that the only way to solve it was to cut down vast swathes of the rainforest to make way for huge new towns and cities. I like to imagine that a lot of us would be horrified at the destruction of precious habitat for nature.

But here in this country? Oh, it's only field and farmlands, it doesn't matter. Meanwhile, countless species are seeing dramatic falls in numbers as a result of, among other things, habitat loss. Yet the Government blames laws for the protection of bats and newts as being an impediment for building and is now trying to reverse such laws.

It seems like people only care about the environment when it's outside of this country...

I'm intrigued by the posters who frame this as an urban/rural divide, or assume housebuilding is only problematic in the countryside.

OP, NONE of us want hundreds of new builds on our doorstep, ALL of us worry about the impact on infrastructure and communities. There is nowhere 'over there' that can absorb mass development easily. There are no easy answers.

Nobody wants your bats and owls and deer to be disturbed. Everybody wants new houses to be built where there are jobs and parking and amenities. Everybody wants housing of a good standard, but also cheap enough for low income families. Everybody wants stable communities. What a vote winner it would be if Government could just stop being pig thick stupid and make it happen! Have you ever wondered why they haven't?

Some statistics about housing in England - mainly from 2021 census.

Total number of households = 23.4m
Number with second homes = 712k = 3% (excludes long term rentals)
Under-occupied (at least 1 spare bedroom) = 68.8%
Over-occupied = 4.4%

My home town is now pretty much surrounded by vast new estates. When I was a child there, it was about a five minute walk from anywhere in 'town' to grazing ponies, cattle, sheep or arable fields. Not any longer, and even more development is planned. With the houses come noise, light pollution, over-crowded schools, and endless traffic. The countryside seems to be viewed by Westminster as entirely disposable.

We're stuck with very high immigration, and fewer people per household. If neither of those things changes, we'll carry on covering the countryside in concrete - with massive implications for water supply (I live in the driest part of England) and our already terrible food security.

It both worries me and pisses me off.

Like @Sofiewoo said slums. Have you any idea the temps those buildings and some normal flats get up to in the summer? Battery hen living!!!!!!!!!!!!

They need to build up into higher blocks more than out

As I said in my post and I quote "Although I accept that not every property will be suitable to be a home."

And to be honest the new builds around here are rabbit hutches with pocket handkerchief gardens that are regularly flooded with sewage as they were "built" (I use the term loosely) on a food plain

In Ireland and in Dublin there was a huge housing development, pretty much a new village built. No new schools, no new gps, no extra shops. People can say this is a nimby post but op pointed out their lack of amenities and the fact it’s a small village. Unless there’s a lot of planning alongside these huge initiatives to build a lot of homes don’t work.

The population is increasing because we are getting older. The increases are in the post-retirement age groups. So maybe we should be building more supported retirement accomodation?

I'm being a bit facetious but those are the numbers. Immigration is propping up the working age population but there's a lack of family homes because they aren't coming back into the market.

I think we do need housing but it needs to be a long term, sustainable strategy taking the next 50 years likely population changes into account.

Have you ever lived in a city, OP? They are mostly really just a collection of villages. Well, actually, they are a collection of villages that spread and created a city over time.

When the little area of your city has a major development, we have the same issues as you do in your village. There is increased traffic, strain on school places, doctors and dentists appointments etc.

But we need extra housing. We also need all the poor quality housing that was thrown up in the 60’s with expected useful lives of 20 odd years to finally be replaced and upgraded.

I can’t quite put my finger on it but there is something unpleasant and almost xenophobic about your posts.

This is nonsense. What has the OP said that is remotely unpleasant, let alone xenophobic?