If you live in a leafy village, has new affordable housing negatively changed your area

[Yesimanimby]

Almost 1,000 new homes are being built in fields surrounding our semi-rural, leafy village. The new homes will become part of the village, doubling the size it is now.

Atm we have hardly any affordable or social housing here, nor flats. The new development will be 30% affordable housing with blocks of flats in a prominent position at the village entrance.

I appreciate there's a housing shortage and new homes, especially affordable and social housing, are needed.

Up until now it's been quiet (sleepy) here and with a very low crime rate. Public transport links are terrible and will remain poor.

We won't be directly backing onto the new homes but everything is within easy walking distance.

DH and I are debating whether to move as it's very likely to change the nature of the place we've enjoyed for many years.

If you've had a big development like this on your doorstep - either newly-built or older, what has been the impact?
Pros and cons, although I'm probably more interested in the downsides as that will tip the balance on whether to sell up.

Oh how ghastly, some oiks who can afford a slightly less than mental price for a house will move in to your lovely village?

I’m in an expensive city. There are constant new builds going up around me. It just makes the value of my period property increase in comparison, plus additional amenities come along cos capitalism.

@bhy I think if a place is considered scenic, and the pubs and restaurants are within walking distance, and you state minimum stay of a week, you get groups of people (Hen Do’s, birthdays, etc) wanting to stay.

Lots of people aren’t confident investing in anything other than bricks & mortar.

Yes but you choose to live in a city, people in small sleepy villages stay there because they like them small and sleepy! Not everyone wants a whole load of amenities and is worried about the price of their property increasing.

@DownThePubWithStevieNicks yes but you chose to live in a city, with all the benefits that affords. The amenities, no commuting time, etc.

@middleagedandinarage our words are almost exactly the same .. cross post

Yes, and it's been a nightmare since the development started.

The number of people wanting to access the village doctors surgery and small schools has quadrupled.

Dozens of teenagers now trashing the local parks and using them as weed selling depots, plus razzing about on loud mopeds at night. Don't even get me started on the electric scooters and e-bikes.

Far too many people here now for the small area. Our house is on the market and we're hoping to move in the next few months.

I think that's quite niche. After horrendous times with previous tenants, we've turned to Air B&B for a couple of properties. We mainly have groups of workers - for example, shop fitters who require to stay relatively close by or engineers who are on a job away from where they are usually based. The thought of a £500k property for Air B&B is wild to me!

I think it depends on the area and how set up it is to handle it, and how the development pans out, because I've seen this go both ways. On one hand, in place A, I'd say the constant development has grown the village and made it less of a cosy place to be, you don't know so many people when you go to events etc but it hasn't had any anti-social effects and it has brought new infrastructure and a petrol station which was much-needed since the old one closed down in the 80s when the village mechanic retired.

On the other hand, in place B (a commuter village) the houses were all sold off to people on ridiculous incomes, including the "affordable" housing and flats, and the roads weren't improved so the previously "naice" large village is now a sprawling horrible soulless town, and the new build residents have blocked the building of a promised supermarket citing "ruining their view" so the local extremely small shop is constantly overwhelmed as is the petrol station on the edge.

Also I wouldn't believe everything you read on the local Facebook. The one for our newest estate would have you thinking it was terrible, but in reality, it's 90% bored people looking for attention.

I live in a road that has a field behind it . The houses that back on to it bought it , so they all own the strip behind their house , it was done to stop any potential houses going up on it .

The problem is you can run but you never know where they will develop next.

We have considerable development close by to us. It does have some negative consequences for us living here already but house prices where we live are still not unaffordable and these new houses provide options for our children. It is fair to say that infrastructure does not always keep place, notably for schools/Doctors etc, but this is down to the LA's planning.

I have no issues with houses going up - people need to live somewhere.

What annoys me is the continual passing of planning permission in areas that are already struggling with lack of infrastructure.

Where I live, the schools are overflowing, no one can get a dentist, we wait 6 weeks for a non-urgent GP appt. Yet none of these things are built when the size of the estate doubles.

I’d move, we got a few thousand houses with over 50% social housing. There are children being threatened with knives on school buses, drugs, parks and play areas continuously vandalised and allotments being trashed

I live in a fairly new development and the addition of block of social housing flats has made a significant difference to the area. Mainly masked teenagers riding on electric bikes and scooters but also some antisocial behaviour from adults.

Im a bit of a lefty and was initially glad they were building these properties but less so now. Its made me seriously consider if I want to live here any more.

A large estate is being built in our village, but no extra spaces in the already full primary school is being created.

None of these houses have garages and the designated parking is limited to one car per house. Given that kids are not able to leave home now due to astronomical rents and they need a car to get to work/college (or at least they want one), some houses have got three or four cars. These are spilling out all over the village, being parked in other people's designated parking (like mine!), and squeezed onto pavements, narrowing the already narrow lanes. The farm up the road has milk lorries and tractors with trailers trying to get past multiple times a day. And this is before the new estate is even finished.

It's driving me bonkers. I want to move so much.

Our village is in the process of doubling in size, with about 15% housing association/council purchased.

Already, the school and doctors can’t cope as they also serve neighbouring smaller villages. There is already a parking problem due to the age of many houses here which is already getting worse.

The houses being built are not in keeping with the current village (in either size or design), just basic bog standard crap new build designs. Tiny gardens and not enough parking.

There are a lot of new families in the village and frankly it’s noticeable - we are having incidents of vandalism and anti social behaviour, that we have rarely experienced before.

The build phase is barely half way through.

Similar here unfortunately

When we moved in everyone pretty much knew each other, then we had a giant estate that more than doubled the village and which they are still building!

Petty crime and vandalism has soared, traffic is appalling, school is full and cannot be extended further and the doctors are over stretched. There is a "them and us" attitude between the estate dwellers ( most of which are rental properties) and the community feel is diminishing fast.

I would move. I wish we had.

Which city is that?

Two local examples.

Village One.

Permission was granted (and supported by the villagers) for a new build on a brown field site (eyesore) in the village. It’s going to be affordable housing for the locals the developers said. When they started building the developers said “oh it’s cost us more than we thought to build these so we are dropping the “affordable houses” village in uproar. No one can get the developers to stick to their contact. So the PCouncil bought a few affordable houses and now charges an affordable rent, but only because the PC could afford this and was so well supported by the village.

Village Two

Housing estate built, all affordable homes, locals move in all happy. Then the council put all the undesirables into a block of “affordable” flats. These are people from cites who have been housed put of area for many many reasons. Mainly drugs, violence crimes.

Now this housing estate is a no go area for families and the police are constantly attending. Locals who bought the houses can’t sell up fast enough.

Never buy next/near to a field, it used to be fine but now it could be bought up for a housing estate. You are better off buying where you know what you are already surrounded by. I know those that had fields and views until suddenly a housing estate got plonked in the middle of it.

We can already see this happening with people who've relocated from cities.The local farmers are being driven to distraction by people who think their cattle and sheep fields are 'dog walking fields'. Another lamb was ripped apart yesterday. 😟
And the local golfers were kicking off recently because of a family who thought the (privately-owned) course was a 'park' and were blithely strolling across it as golf balls winged overhead.

I'm sick of this bloody attitude. Strangely enough people don't want the kind of issues such builds are bringing. I'm not going to apologise for not wanting boy racers and revving engines and not being able to park when I get home from a long day at work, and dogs snarling and yapping and people yelling and swearing and the smell of weed drifting around and loud music being played at all hours, in what was previously a nice peaceful place. I didn't like that shit at 25 and I still don't like it at nearly 50.

Tiny development. There was no vandalism or visible drug dealing in the village. Now there is. This is probably one family only, but it has its impact. The police do nothing.

People need homes though. I really don’t know the answer, but if everyone moves out and what the middle classes like to call ‘problem’ families move in, that won’t help.

Haven't read thread just answering OP:

Yes i do and yes it has negatively impacted us.

The roads are fucked now because of all the lorrys (to build it) and the digging up and bad patching for the utilities.

The doctors is now over crowded.

Traffic noise is now a problem (twats zooming up the only road into the village)(cats are getting run over a lot as well!)

The water run off from the housing estate has flooded homes which never had problems before it was there.

The development in our village gave affordable housing to many young families who were on the waiting list. It was really lovely to see the families finally in secure housing.