Forest City · Farmland
Will Forest City destroy Suffolk farmland?
No — it saves farmland. Because a properly planned city fits far more people into a smaller footprint than sprawling village extensions, Forest City would save the East of England around 21,500 acres of prime farmland compared with building the region’s required 340,000 homes the usual way.
The default way Britain builds homes is urban sprawl around existing villages and towns — smearing construction across as many areas as possible, so developers don't have to build infrastructure. Sprawling developments typically fit only 15 dwellings per hectare.
Because Forest City is properly planned next to areas of employment and served by public transport including a tram network, homes can be built closer together — think the terraced streets of Cambridge, Bath and London — using three times less land per home. 340,000 "development as normal" homes would consume at least 56,000 acres of greenfield land; Forest City uses only around 31,500 acres of built-on land, saving roughly 21,500 acres of prime farmland.