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?

Well Xenophobia is defined as the fear of strangers, so it was this post of OP’s that made me think their posts were touching on xenophobic…

And yes, for me personally, it is terrifying to have thousands more people (a good proportion of whom will undoubtedly make the area significantly worse through crime, antisocial behaviour, etc etc) when you're used to a relatively small, tight-knit community.

Ultimately, I just disagree with net migration is bad. We have an ageing population and a declining birth rate. We need working age adults to come to our country. And they have to live somewhere.

Yabu.
On this map of the UK, the built-upon areas of land are red. The different shades of green show farmland, forest and park land. We really aren't running out of green bits. An increase of 1 million houses means the red bits growing by 3%. It's barely noticeable to the vast majority of the population, and only noticeable to you because you currently live on a boundary between green and red. For most people, the expansion just means a few more seconds of semi-urban developed area before they reach that boundary, and it will barely register.

I think it is easy to be more tolerant of mass housebuilding when you live in a built up area already as it doesnt have much impact on your environment.
It’s not surprising that the OP doesn’t want her small, tight knit community ruined. I don’t see what is wrong or unreasonable with that opinion.

Having both grown up in the middle of the countryside in a tiny village that has probably trebled in size since I was little and now living in my little patch in zone 2 London which has also had massive developments taking place, I’d have to disagree with you.

Communities in all areas are impacted. None more than others. Maybe in cities we see more poverty on our doorsteps. We see more deprivation and large families crammed into homes far too small. So we are more compassionate and welcoming to the required development? That said, a new estate on greenfield in our area received huge local opposition a couple of years ago. It still went ahead and from what I gather, has been largely successful.

It really isn't easy to be tolerant if you live in a city. The intensive building and population changes of the last few years have been awful in London. (I left two years ago, thank God.)

I absolutely have sympathy with the OP. But believe me, there will be plenty of people in towns and cities who are just as horrified by the population situation.

It's interesting because 20 years ago, if you mentioned an over population problem, people could not see what you were talking about. Now I think a lot of people, especially in cities, have that sense of rats in a cage. There's a theory about this, about how human behaviour gets worse and worse when there's too many of us. I can't remember what it's called. But it's interesting because the word "over population" has gone from being verboten to being quite widely understood I think.

I don't ever tend to see it as a house building crisis. There's a crisis because governments got rid of social housing and left the whole thing to the private sector, which means there is no affordable housing. Every time a block of flats is built, they'll tell you there's an affordable chunk of them - but the "affordable" price is eye watering. So a huge chunk of what's labelled as affordable actually isn't.

Where I live, the one local secondary school is oversubscribed, so many children either have to get a bus to school elsewhere (which isn't cheap), or they get driven to and from school by one of their DP, occasionally as a car-share.

When a huge local housing development was built about 32 years ago, a new secondary school was promised, but it never materialised. In the meantime, another local secondary school was merged with the one we have now, so that just made things even worse!

Same is happening where I live. What I dont understand though is they are not building affordable housing, it's large 4 -6 bedroom houses with triple garages. All the new builds Ive seen are large detached houses, even in the poorer areas. No affordable homes in sight. It makes no sense.

Can you read? I haven’t linked GB bloody news 😂

Where’s your proof in the uptick in foreign investments buying up rural property throughout 2024 then?

So the takeaway from these comments are that all the new homes are unsuitable tiny rabbit hutches, but at the same time they are all huge 5 bedroom homes that people shouldn’t be allowed to live in either.

The reason why "we need more houses" is a predictable response is because it's true. We do. People need somewhere to live and yes, that does mean building on fields.

It's very unreasonable to basically say "well, I got mine, other people and future generations can go fuck themselves".

In the meantime, another local secondary school was merged with the one we have now, so that just made things even worse!

Why was it merged if there was a need for both schools?

Well. I live in a shithole, a place sometimes mentioned on here as being not very nice and all these threads from people that live in nice places that are now turning into shitholes make me feel a lot better about where I live and I'm happy not to move, so not all bad.

This is true . Where I am a new ‘ town ‘ of 6000 houses is being built and the site manager has said normally they’d be given 12 weeks to complete a house but on this development it’s 10. The whole build is scheduled to be finished in about 25yrs . The first tranche are up for sale with a 3 bed end of terrace at £800k . A 2 bed terrace at @ £545. The local and surrounding villages are basically going to be swallowed up but the biggest concern has not been the houses being built it’s the lack of infrastructure.

Only 10% of the land in the UK has been built upon.

We don't need "more" houses we need people in the houses we already have

Personally living next to a housing development none are affordable they are considering not continuing with the second phase because they arnt selling fast enough they are selling houses for £300,000 right next to a road with houses selling for £180,000 the cheaper houses are bigger too 😉 all the new build housing association ones (different development) are virtually double the rent of the older stock people go in and fight to get back out they are not affordable enough

We are an ageing society, with lots of older people in homes that are too big, and often unmanageable. There is a lack of suitable, affordable accommodation to downsize to.

Social housing tenants will get priority to move, and the well off can afford to buy custom built apartments with expensive service charges. However, that leaves lots of older people, on moderate incomes, in houses they own. Houses that wouldn’t raise enough to buy retirement housing and pay the hefty monthly service charges. Even if they’d like to move, there are few options that are practical and affordable.

Living in the right accommodation means fewer older people will be bed blocking in hospitals, or need to move into extortionately priced care homes. Many have no family nearby, so retirement housing can provide security and company for otherwise isolated older people. It also has the benefit of freeing up more family sized housing. As the houses on our road have become empty, the older residents are replaced by young families.

Well depends on price tag innit. You looking at 350k under you get 5.3x6.2m 3 bed house.
You looking at 800k you get actual massive house easy. (my nearby prices) Probably not in the same developments though

But you moved to a village " ten to fifteen minutes walk from a town". It was always going to be swallowed up in the end.

Give over. At no point in that post or any other have I mentioned nationality of people who could live here.

It wouldn't matter if they were all pure white British, or from another part of the world, I wouldn't be happy having thousands of people suddenly arriving in the area. I hate cities, I find them extremely overwhelming and generally avoid large crowds as best I can too - and as I said earlier, I'm someone who prefers the quiet, rural life.

Is that so bad? Does that really make me xenophobic? Don't be ridiculous.

My original comment about people turning to Reform is purely an observation. I see the comments in local Facebook groups, and hear comments from friends and family, about how they are tempted to vote or want to vote Reform - primarily as a result of things like a hotel being used to house migrants a short distance away, and the feeling that Labour is abandoning rural or semi-rural areas by foisting thousands of extra homes on their doorstep. Whether they're right or wrong to believe that is something different altogether, however it would not surprise me if it's small communities like this that have an impact in the outcome of the next GE.

So living here means I should be prepared to see the majority of vacant fields concreted over, then? It's amazing the mental gymnastics some people are using to basically say I should just put up and shut up...

lovely.

It's called levelling down

😂 do you really believe that is the only built upon land in the UK?
That map is too small and only showing the most dense city areas.

I'm with you OP, where I live the sewage is up to capacity, there are no pavements into the village, no one can get an appointment with the GP, no NHS dentist sign up available, no school places, primary or secondary. Thousands of houses being built and no infrastructure to support it. People moaning about foxes in their gardens that never used to bother them, trees being taken down and not replaced, houses being built on flood plains, it's a complete disaster.

It's not even as if the people trying to get on the housing ladder can afford a 3 bed for half a million pounds, it people moving up the ladder. Complete madness. The new builds need to be targeted at the younger generation starting out, I get it that developers are only looking for profit, I think the government need to step in and and make provision for entry level house buying a priority. But I suppose if the developers can't maximize their profits, they would dip out of building.

I am surrounded by my own land as that is the only way to ensure that I won’t lose my view. 😏