Shiv Malik at Great Wratting Parish Council, 5 August 2026

On Wednesday 5 August we were invited to Great Wratting Parish Council. It was probably the best parish meeting we have attended to date — civil, well chaired, and full of substance. The room was at capacity, around 50 people.

The chair, Terry Holloway, set out the parish’s case against Forest City with care: loss of countryside, loss of village identity, questions of financial viability and delivery competence, and whether a city ‘built of wood’ is a fire hazard that would consume tens of millions of trees. He added that the parish thought the reservoir a good idea — though, as he put it, it wasn’t ours as such. He also apologised for remarks he had made about me on LinkedIn. I thought that was very gracious.

Questions from the parish council and the audience

These were the points put to us, in the order they came. Where we have a written answer, it is linked.

What follows is the speech I gave at the opening of the meeting.

Speech

Firstly I want to thank the parish council and especially the chair, Terry Holloway, for inviting me as a representative of the Forest City project to Great Wratting.

I’m not here to pitch you on the virtues of building a city. It’s farcical to think that I or anyone else in Forest City could persuade you of the virtues of building a city. You live in a beautiful village. You love it that way. And that is why you live here.

I also want to say this. We as Forest City have no money, we own no land, and we hold no elected office. No one has gotten paid. Everyone is a volunteer. The only power we have, and all we have had to date, is the power of our voices, our words, and our ideas. That is all.

So I don’t come with a pitch for Forest City. I am very happy to answer any questions you may have. But I really want to ask you some questions, and also to set out some facts which you may not be aware of.

So my question — to everyone here, but mostly to Indy Wijenayaka, and the political leadership of West Suffolk including Nick Timothy — is this. What is the plan? What is the plan?

You have had to live with development run amok for twenty years. So where has this gotten anyone, really?

Look around. Where is the hospital, the GP surgeries, the dentists, the sixth form colleges, the community centres? Where is the train station, the well-surfaced roads without potholes? Where is the social care provision? The decent schools, the bustling high street?

Where too are the affordable homes? Handsome, aspirational places to live, to house your children as they start to raise a family? And where is the water? The wettest of winters, and now your gardens are dying and the farmers are struggling because of a drought.

Three decades of expansion, all that development, and what is to show for it? Almost nothing. Developers and landowners like the Vesteys have made their money. Make no mistake.

You must be seething with quiet rage.

So let me lay out two facts.

Over the next 30 years, drive 30 miles in any direction and a total of 366,000 homes will be built.

The government has mandated it. And those targets aren’t going away with a change of government. The houses are coming. Make no mistake. That’s a million more people who will move to this area. If you don’t know this, it is because politicians like Indy and Nick Timothy would rather not deal with this. They would much prefer it if they could, like their predecessors before them, kick the can down the road. That is the plan. To kick the can down the road. They are afraid to face up to the difficult questions. They are afraid of you and your reactions.

But nonetheless, those homes will come. To ignore it is to lose out again and again. You will spend many decades more protesting, but the houses will be built.

So what is your plan for this? Given the targets, how would you like these homes to be built? Presumably with infrastructure — the homes, the hospitals, the transport?

Now on to the second, even more immediate fact.

How far a drive away is the South Cambs border? (A parish council member: three minutes away.)

So three minutes away. On that border the government has already, in the last few weeks, established the Greater Cambridge Development Corporation.

Hands up who knows what it is? (One hand from the audience.)

Right. So its mandate is to build 150,000 homes, with no current plans for infrastructure: transport, health, police, dentists, schools, nor even a reservoir to solve water. Come autumn, it will have compulsory purchase and planning powers. The chair, Peter Freeman, has not once driven to Haverhill.

And yet because it is on the other side of the border, but only three minutes away, you’ve ignored it. Specifically Nick Timothy and Indy have ignored it. And yet it is a far greater threat to everything you hold dear. Where is your seat at the table? Who has consulted you? And once again, what is the plan?

So to round this off: this area will change. Very, very considerably. Haverhill will have to continue to grow, and will within a decade swallow this village. The homes are coming. And they will absolutely be the sorts of developments you hate, because that is the status quo.

And you won’t see anything from it, because your political leadership would rather kick the can down the road. They only care about the next few years. No one asks what the plan is for the next 30.

So if Forest City is in the news, if Forest City is seen as a threat — with its 100% affordable homes, the largest single nature reserve on England’s soil, and £43bn in transport, energy, water, health and education investment for this area — it’s only because we’re being honest about what the next 30 years should look like, and what it might look like if you shape it positively, with thought, with patience, and with forethought for the next generation.

We will keep showing up. If you want the longer case for why the homes are coming anyway, and what it would take to build them with water, hospitals and rail, it is in the feasibility study and on our about page. More from me on our people page.