Sir Keir Starmer has been accused of “firing a nuke” into UK villages over his plans to build three “new towns.” The Government has made house building one of its central missions, pledging to build 1.5 million new homes over the course of this Parliament.
Housing Secretary Steve Reed, who has vowed to “build baby build”, is set to pledge that the construction of three new towns will begin before the next election at Labour’s party conference – with Tempsford in Bedfordshire, Leeds South Bank, and Crews Hill, north London, described as the “most promising sites”.
But the chairman of the parish council in Tempsford believes residents have no idea what to expect or prepare for. David Sutton told the PA news agency: “The biggest problem we’ve got at the moment is that even today, as an announcement’s being made, we’ve been given no idea whatsoever of the scale of what we’re being asked to live amongst.”
The town is currently made up of 300 houses and 600 people but residents fear that the town’s population could increase exponentially.
“Nobody’s come to talk to us at all,” Mr Sutton said. “Nobody’s given us any indication whether it’s the rumoured 10,000 houses from before, 20,000, 40,000 was heard a couple of years ago, and last year 125,000, so what is it?”
Mr Sutton added to the Telegraph: “We’ve got no shop, no school, no doctor,” he said. “All we have is a part-time farm shop and my pub.
“The village does need a little more to succeed, but without just coming along and firing a nuke into the village and turning it into a city.”
The parish councillor also said the green spaces that could be built upon, including Tempsford’s historic airfield, are important to residents.
Adam Hart, whose great-grandfather flew from the secret wartime base RAF Tempsford, said losing the airfield would amount to “losing a unique piece of British history”.
The 25-year-old historian and author, who lives in west London, told PA: “Not only would it be a huge shame to lose what’s left of RAF Tempsford, it would also deprive my generation of the chance to learn about this incredible piece of history and the bravery of the men and women who served at Tempsford.
“Disguised as a working farm, Tempsford was the airfield from which many of Britain’s bravest spies departed for their secret missions in Nazi-occupied Europe.
“Having visited Tempsford and researched the airfield, it seems to have taken its secrecy so seriously that still today no one seems to know about it.
“By building over the old runways and demolishing what’s left of the buildings, future generations will not have the chance to visit and learn and be less inclined to learn about something that no longer exists.
“Losing RAF Tempsford is not just losing a unique piece of British history, I think it will also contribute to future generations increasingly not engaging with the Second World War, which in my opinion should be avoided at all costs, particularly with a war raging in Europe as we speak.
“And I say all this as a young person paying extortionate rent who would benefit from building more houses.”
Work on 12 new towns will be taken forward, Housing Secretary Steve Reed is to announce, as recommended by a report from the Government’s New Towns Taskforce, published on Sunday morning.
Among the dozen locations are sites in Cheshire, Manchester, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Plymouth and London.
Each will have at least 10,000 homes, and could collectively result in 300,000 houses being built across England.
