How Labour is destroying the British village

Telegraph

3 days ago

Duck pond, cricket pitch, a church and chocolate box cottages. The quintessential features of England's villages will, hopefully, endure for centuries.
The endearing charm and blissful way of life, however, is edging closer to extinction.
Labour's housebuilding drive threatens to 'bulldoze' Britain's villages to create mega-villages, loosening their sense of community and, perhaps, fracturing their soul.
In her quest for 1.5 million new homes by 2029, Angela Rayner, the Housing Secretary, has cranked up the pressure on rural communities to build, while relaxing targets for major cities, including London.
This could have a devastating effect on the unique nature of our villages. Blake Stephenson, Tory MP, recently told the Commons how villages in his Mid Bedfordshire constituency are at risk from the 'creeping spread of urban sprawl' that threatens to 'merge them into a conglomerate mass of development'.
His fears come amid the Government's plan to strip back development protections in the green belt. Villages would no longer be designated as 'historic', which grants them extra safeguards, while a block on 'unrestricted sprawl' around rural settlements will also be removed. In fact, the Government's proposals stipulate the importance of preventing neighbouring towns from merging, but do not offer the same protection for villages.
A bid to boost village protections was launched by opposition MPs last month, but the motion was voted down – paving the way for the identity and heritage of England's classic villages to be lost.
'Changing beyond recognition'
Two weeks after Stephenson outlined his concerns for Bedfordshire in Parliament, we're standing in the village of Steppingley, a sleepy green belt settlement where you'd half expect to bump into Midsomer Murders' DCI Tom Barnaby. Dog walkers stop to chat with each other, the church bells chime on the hour and the pub will open at midday.
The pub, church and village hall are clustered together, while an Indian restaurant lies on the periphery. The average house sold for £470,000 last year.
Home to little more than 200 residents and comprised of just a few roads, it is usually far from the news agenda. But with the Government determined to build millions of homes, Steppingley is one of the potential 'conglomerate mass' victims Stephenson fears for.
'It's places like this which are in danger,' he says. 'England is changing beyond all recognition and most villages are getting a lot of housing.'
In what was believed to be a record for public engagement, more than 5,000 objection letters were sent to Central Bedfordshire council over plans to build 170 homes on fields between the town of Flitwick and Steppingley.
The proposals, which would have shrunk the gap between the town and village to less than half a mile, were refused by the council's planning committee last month. But there is little cause for celebration.
'It will go to the Planning Inspectorate and be overturned,' Stephenson concedes. 'That's another final decision which will be taken out of the hands of the local community. It feels like the strong arm of the Government is going to take over any form of control.
'Once one field becomes housing, it sets a precedent. One is developed, and then the next and the next again. Flitwick is getting closer to Steppingley.'
Due to the Government's housebuilding narrative, villagers fear there is a 'sense of inevitability' that they will soon be swallowed up into one mega-village that has lost its identity.
'I feel like I could cry,' one declares. 'It feels wherever you go around here there is a threat of further development.'
'They've just built that monstrosity over there,' says 65-year-old Mark Gale, pointing to a care complex as he surveys the view across fields from Steppingley to Flitwick. 'Then there's a new ugly crematorium there, and they've just built a housing estate down the bottom there called Steppingley Gardens but it's nothing to do with Steppingley.
'I've been here 25 years and it's very nice living in a village, nice and peaceful. I don't want it to become like any other town.
'Without a doubt it would lose its identity. It's a tight-knit community and I don't think anyone here wants that to change.'
'Villages are losing their souls'
It is that sense of village community which feels endangered in modern day Britain – one that is becoming critically endangered thanks to an ever-growing population and the continued struggle for rural businesses and services.
The prospect of mass housebuilding in the village of Wolvey, Warwickshire, may spell the end for one of its local stores if a supermarket is built at one of three new estates proposed by Rugby Borough Council. 'We have worked hard to grow the shop at a time when many village stores are closing. Clearly we would not be able to compete with a multiple retailer outlet,' its manager Ian Nicholson posted on a village Facebook page.
Opponents claim the green belt village will balloon in size by 80pc should it become victim to housebuilding 'desecration' of 710 new homes put forward by the council in its proposed Local Plan.
Rugby Borough Council said it is 'following an evidence-based process of site selection... to bring forward a plan that can be sound and ensure development is properly planned'.
A spokesman said: 'For years in Rugby borough, most new housing has been built in the town, and rural housing would provide more housing choice in areas that are popular places to live.'
The concerns in Wolvey paint a picture for villages across the country. Councils are grappling with huge new housing targets imposed upon them by Westminster. Rural local authorities have been saddled with vast increases to their delivery numbers, while targets for major cities have retreated.
Kevin Hollinrake, the shadow housing secretary, told Parliament that 'raising targets by up to 400pc in rural areas while simultaneously reducing them by over 11pc in London, 30pc in Birmingham and Newcastle, and over 50pc in Coventry is unfair and wrong-headed.'
It is that added pressure on rural areas which will do little to safeguard the dwindling community feel. Village amenities are sparse and have been in a continual decline for decades. Only a third of the rural population now live within three miles of a bank, while closed shops are being taken 'away from public service provision' and transferred to private use, according to a recent Parliamentary research paper.
In his latest season of Clarkson's Farm, new publican Jeremy Clarkson bemoans how 'villages are losing their soul'.
'You don't have a village doctor any more. He's in a health centre 30 miles away and you can't get an appointment. There's no village bobby on the beat. There's no village vicar, there's no village shop, there's no village school.
'If we end up at a point where there's no village pub then what is a village? It's just some houses. Pubs are the hub and it should always be that way.'
While Clarkson has breathed new life into his pub in Asthall, others around the country are falling by the wayside.
A recent victim is The Crown in the Bedfordshire village of Shillington, a former local for Stephenson. '[Chancellor] Rachel Reeves's Budget didn't help at all, with National Insurance increasing. The cost of doing business just goes through the roof. Just look behind us, the evidence is there.' In what would have been peak lunchtime hours a few weeks ago, the only noise now is the swinging pub sign squeaking in the wind.
'Footfall is a challenge for village pubs, you've now got to be a destination pub. They are the centres of community, so it's such a shame they're closing.' Six pubs closed every week in 2024, according to the British Beer and Pub Association.
'We've got a gun to our heads over housing delivery'
In the Kent village of Littlebourne, three miles east of Canterbury, residents are fearful of the future.
Housebuilder Gladman had a 115-home project rejected by the previous Tory administration at Canterbury City Council in 2021 amid concerns over the 'urbanisation of the countryside'.
Fast-forward to today and the proposed scheme has almost trebled in size, swelling to 300 homes. The council, now led by Labour, conceded that the new homes would 'harm' the village aesthetic, yet an officer's recommendation of approval for the significantly larger scheme was sent to the planning committee in May.
At the meeting, one Tory councillor complained that the committee had 'a gun to our head to allow more of these houses' as a result of the nationwide push to build.
The council is in a 'state of presumption in favour of development' because of its failure to hit government housing targets in recent years. This means the authority has to look more favourably on housing applications they would otherwise refuse. A decision on the scheme was deferred until a later date as councillors await more mitigation details from the developers.
Peter Farrow, of Littlebourne Parish Council, said: 'The village has had a lot of extra housing in recent years and this would be a huge increase. There isn't a reasonable excuse for bearing down on us.
'There is a lot of pressure coming from the people in Westminster who are really pushing. So I suspect this Labour council probably feels under more pressure than the previous council did.'
And it's not just the pressure of housebuilding which is worrying England's villages. The ever-increasing spread of solar farms risks surrounding rural settlements.
Residents in 23 villages between Long Stratton and Diss in Norfolk are believed to have been sent letters, telling them their land may be 'required' for what would be the country's biggest solar farm.
As the plans are deemed a nationally significant infrastructure project the developer, Island Green Power, could have the power to compulsorily purchase land.
Carpets of solar panels are poised to be installed across almost 500 square miles of Britain between now and 2035, as Labour ramps up its net zero plans. Figures released by the Government show that central England will be hit hardest by the solar blitz, with the greatest concentration stretching from Lincolnshire to South Wales.
'Labour is going toe-to-toe with communities'
Pick almost any village in the country, and you'll likely hear tales of housebuilding woe and how it looks almost unrecognisable from years ago. Concerns over expansion aren't anything new.
Yet Stephenson believes the rhetoric from the Government is putting tails up.
Law changes proposed in the Planning and Infrastructure Billinclude the introduction of a national scheme of delegation. This will determine which planning applications should be decided by local officers, and which should go to a public committee. The changes are expected to lead to fewer applications being discussed in public to speed up the planning system and the housebuilding process.
Meanwhile, ecology surveys to mitigate the impact on Britain's dwindling wildlife will no longer be mandatory. Earlier this year, Reeves told developers that they need not worry about 'bats and newts' in a bid to cut red tape.
'You don't solve issues by having a fight with village communities, but that's exactly what Labour is doing,' Stephenson says. 'They are going toe-to-toe with communities, telling them 'we don't care what you think, we're going to build anyway'.
'They've decided they have the power, they have the majority, they can fight who they want.' And our villages may be the ultimate casualties.