Plans to bulldoze the countryside near Princess Kate’s family home have been put in place and some have suggested the princess will be heartbroken by development.
West Berkshire Council is planning to build 2,500 homes on fields between Upper Bucklebury and Thatcham, a few minutes away from the house the Princess of Wales grew up in, reports Daily Mail.
The housing estate should be finished in 2041 meaning the area will undergo construction works for 15 years.
Residents in the area are not happy about the plans and they have raised concerns over Housing Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner’s plans.
Rayner admitted her aim of 1.5 million homes would only be a “dent” in the number of houses she hopes to build.
Locals suggested Princess Kate would likely not speak out publicly but would rather agree in private with locals infuriated by the plan – which they said would make the Berkshire countryside end up looking “like China”.
Hash Shingadia, 64, used to serve Haribo and Doritos to the Princess of Wales and her sister Pippa at his Spar and Post Office in Upper Bucklebury, Berkshire, when they were teenagers.
Speaking to MailOnline, Hash said Kate would be extremely upset, he said: “Long term, it’s going to happen but it’s sad to lose our identity. It’s a village and then in a few years it will be part of Thatcham.
“I was in Bedford a short while ago and up there it’s just houses upon houses upon houses. At one time it was fields and now it’s houses left, right and centre. It’s going to put a lot of pressure on the surrounding area.”
Labour plans to increase the number of homes built which could see countryside spots facing development in order to fix the housing crisis.
Angela Rayner’s plans have been criticised after a leading industry figure described Labour’s flagship housing pledge as unworkable.
David Thomas, chief executive of Barratt Redrow, the UK’s largest housebuilding firm, declared that Government’s target of building 1.5 million homes during this parliament is impossible due to a severe shortage of skilled workers in the construction sector.