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.

Thing is, if all the lovely leafy villages had accepted a few new houses being built over the last 20 years then we wouldn’t have had this massive issue. So it’s redress really for too much Tory Nimbyism.

Maybe try to focus community spirit with the newcomers, instead of assuming they’ll be issues.

There are loads of snobby people around. Loads who think people of colour are more likely to be criminals, plenty who dont like seeing people dressing in traditional ethnic clothing in their naice English village, plenty who think the laughter of children in their back gardens is 'noisy' and disturbing the peace. Older folk especially tend to be very intolerant and set in their ways.
There are reasons the birthrate has dropped in the uk and one is that families, children and teenagers have been made unwelcome.

Because in our area's case it's not the locals who are getting either affordable housing or social housing.

It's lots of people from outer London who don't actually really want to live round here. Poor transport, not enough jobs and not much in the way of 'social' activities bar expensive gyms and a couple of pubs.

They're not happy, their children really aren't happy and it's starting to show

I live in sleepy hollow and we have 2 developments on our doorstep, both c3000 houses. It’s pretty good to be honest, we have a shop, another school, paths have been improved, it’s a nice place to live so it’s good to have more families here enjoying it. Downside is new people wandering up the middle of the lanes because it’s a quiet country lane (with a 60mph speed limit) and they don’t seem to know to walk facing oncoming traffic, and it takes some people a while to get used to driving twisty lanes with no white lines or street lights. That’s a bit frustrating when you’re behind them, but the pros definitely outweigh the minor inconveniences.

Yep - we live in what used to be a very nice leafy semi-rural small town. Affordable /social housing built nearby has increased antisocial behaviour beyond belief. Graffiti everywhere, dangerous dogs terrorising our dogs, cars racing around day and night (neighbours cats both run over within the last year and they had lived happily here for 10 years), and there was actually a stabbing a few weeks ago! The parks are now filled with litter and betting /vape shops opening on the high street, which used to be local businesses. The local doctors surgery is impossible to get an appointment at (I understand there are also other issues feeding into this). We are planning to leave within the next few years as we don't want to have kids here anymore. Maybe I sound like a snob but I find the behaviour unacceptable and very unpleasant to live around.

I think you live in fairyland!

A wise suggestion, just so long as the councillors concerned aren't on the planning committe and already in the pockets of the builders

We had similar to OP's situation where I used to live, which is largely why I moved. TBF it had the potential to work well, but as predicted absolutely no infrastructure was put in place and the problems have escalated ever since

I too live in a village like this, there's lots of placards on houses to say keep our green belt. But even if we moved again there would be building work. But we dread developer's getting hold of the land

We live in a medium size town but close to the edge so fields and woods about 15 mins away. We want to move in a couple of years and would love to have had a field behind us but due to the planning regs being relaxed are just not going to do this now. I have lived in a tiny town as a child though not quite a village, inner city and suburbs. We could move to an area, Peak District that has some areas where you know nothing could be built behind you, its not quite mountains but very hilly, too isolated though.

Quite a few of my relatives live in social housing, two different estates. One is especially awful. Though most people are ok probably about 25% of the residents are just bloody awful and no one would want to live near them.

DS friend just bought his first house on a new estate, a primary school has actually been built on it, about 500 houses. There is a cul de sac and it is something like 4 key worker houses, his friend is in one, a couple of shared ownership and then 6 rented out by a HA. There is no way it’s 10% of the estate. I can’t remember the name of the developers but for new builds they are much better than the usual shoe boxes.

Thanks for giving me a good laugh.

Fwiw, I grew up on a council estate myself. I'm not against new homes being built, but concerned about the impact on quality of life for everyone. There was a lot more civic pride when I was a child, and it was before the days of widespread weed smoking. The police were more visible too.

You were talking about social housing, and council housing dodgy tenants etc. The OP isn't talking about council/social housing.

@HousefulofIkea
Where to start!!
No one has said anything about skin colour on this thread, or ethnic clothing! What's that got to do with anything? 2 Indian families have just moved into my village, into 2 of the biggest poshest houses there are, so I'm confused that you're implying "people of colour" are seen as lowering the tone. That's your own prejudice coming out.

And your comment about "older folk" being intolerant is very ageist. Do you think it's OK to generalise about people based purely on a characteristic they can't change ie their age? That's the definition of prejudice surely?

And as for the birth rate - do you really think people are avoiding having kids because they feel unwelcome? Seriously?!! It's because of the cost of living, and more specifically, the cost of child care.

Good to hear this! I'm hoping this would be the experience if we stayed, but it's a gamble.

Have you thought about mobilising people in the village to fundraise for a lovely new playground for the children? Make them feel welcome, give them something to do?
If not - why not?

I don’t live in the leafy villages but near to them, more rurally. My children go to school in them, we have friends in them and we use the local services. The problem isn’t the social housing. The problem is developments being squeezed into existing villages and carefully planned to avoid any obligation on the developer’s part to invest in infrastructure and facilities. The houses are poor quality, no gardens, flood when it rains and boiling when it’s hot. Local services creaking at the seams because of too many people. Even sewerage has become a problem in our nearest overdeveloped village.

I grew up in one of your leafy villages and it has always been a mixture of different social and economic groups. Honestly, I find the ones that are ghettos for rich people and commuters a bit soulless. The real issue is that places where people live need amenities that fit their size. That’s the issue that would have me moving on. I’d not give the social housing part a second thought. It’s always been there, they just sold them all a few years back and now they’re backfilling the gap.

If all the lovely leafy villages had accepted a few new houses being built over the last 20 years then we wouldn’t have had this massive issue

This is true, @sausagesforteaagain, except that major developers don't want to build "a few" houses because that's not where the profit lies; instead they plan hundreds and local authorities dictate how many must be affordable housing because it's a handy way of getting them built

Nor is affordable housing necessarily a problem, except where they're bought up by LAs/HAs and then let out on an unwise basis, leading to issues for all

New housing estates now have to agree to a certain amount of social housing in order to obtain planning permission. I have lived in social housing before and know everyone who needs it isn’t bad but believe me, a lot are. Cannabis farms, drug dealing, stabbings, xl bullies etc. I’ve bought a house on one of these estates and the amount of houses up for sale due to anti social behaviour is unbelievable. People are selling at a loss to get out.

Shopping trollies being left on the pavement, kids on the small park being beaten up and intimidated. Get out is my advice.

yes, it’s never people from the area who buy them either, the affordable bit is a joke, it’s always people who’ve never heard of the area it’s landmarks then still don’t enjoy or explore it once they’ve moved in. commuters usually. meanwhile locals are house trapped because our houses are worth “too much” to part exchange for one of the new houses but not enough to upgrade. there’s always facts to back this up on the local estate agents websites and nationally I haven’t made it up

Maybe they don’t have time - volunteering is time consuming and the more you do the more people expect! That’s why people don’t do it - or quit doing it like I have (beyond occasional tea making).

@Yesimanimby Do you know the details of the ‘30% affordable housing’ - is it housing for sale/ rent at a discount rate (usually to people with links to the area), or social housing managed by the local council / a housing association, or a mix?

DH grew up in a large village, and in the past 10-15 years there have been several large developments so it’s almost a small town now. Not quite comparable to your village, but PIL say there are pressure on the local GP practice and the dentist practice, and traffic has increased on the two main roads out of the village.

Where will you love to though? The situation is everywhere as far as I can tell.

Sorry to hear all this.

But this bit:
the new build residents have blocked the building of a promised supermarket citing "ruining their view"
must be based on a misunderstanding. No residents can "block" anything. They can be consulted, but their views will be ignored unless they are relevant planning considerations - the niceness of their view is not one. And even relevant considerations are only "taken into account", but get balanced against all other relevant considerations. It's unusual for the consultation exercise to throw up any relevant considerations the the planning authority was not already aware of.

I think the issue is the massive underinvestment in publicly provided amenities. Everyone has problems getting a GP appointment. Youth clubs and playgrounds have no funding. The police only come out for "serious" crime and not for anti-social behaviour.

I grew up in a leafy medieval rural town of 7,000 people. It grew with large housing estates around its edges. People complained it would change the town, bring down house prices and bring trouble.

Thirty years later the opposite is true. The town is as it ever was. The dodgy cafe with fruit machines and unemployed lads from the 1980s is still the dodgy cafe but it's not full of smoke any more and the lads work minimum wage shifts. House prices have rocketed and the level of trouble is around the same. 15,000 people live there now and my mum says nothing has changed but she's glad they pedestrianised the High Street. Those new estates are just different parts of town.

Change is good or the town will die and in many small places they are closing schools because of a lack of children. I'd embrace it because variety is the spice of life and you could meet brilliant new people.

But this isn't what people are talking about is it? Nowhere has anyone said they don't approve of brown or black people or ethnic clothing or children laughing.

If we're talking about dangerous driving, no corresponding development of services that all these households need, loss of biodiversity and open space (two things that are increasingly being seen as some niche hippy luxury rather than essential for people's wellbeing), increase of pollution, increase of flooding problems, increase of congestion...yes people are entitled to be concerned.

Not next to me but there’s been more or less a new village been built on the edge of town & in amongst the £200-400,000 homes there’s a lot of social housing homes too. I know they are absolutely needed but there’s a lot of houses there now that won’t sell & people are desperate. There’s lots of drugs/deprivation up there & lots of crime. Added to this, there’s only one road from there to town & it’s gridlocked.