Supporters Update: The Vision is Starting to Materialise

As 2026 began, one of my main worries was that our pretty breathless momentum would be killed off by the Christmas break. I couldn’t have been more wrong!

Right up to Christmas day, our new board member Steve McAdam was making waves on the Today programme. And then as soon as New Year’s was over, Joe, I and the rest of the Forest City volunteers and board members were again running around East Anglia meeting with more landowners, funders, people across the political spectrum and local residents. Even more excitingly, the first drafts of the expert reports have started to come in.

The Vision is Starting to Materialise

Since launching the Forest City project a little over three months ago people have been asking one question: “what will it look like?” It’s genuinely hard to balance this need for visuals with the need to consult local residents to actually develop the plans, and then too, to ensure we can produce real substance with the resources we have.

Wednesday 28th of January marked a turning point. Alongside board members Steve McAdam (the masterplanner behind King’s Cross and the Olympics) and Jackie Sadek, the Cambridge-London Innovation Corridor chair, our environmental, transport and water experts came together to start drafting the spatial plans for Forest City.

Based on their reports — which will include costs, design principles and delivery timelines — they began etching out how the city might be linked by rail to London, Haverhill and Cambridge, where new forests and marshland might be planted and where new lake-like reservoirs could be created to solve the region’s water issues.

After three hours, it was incredibly clear that this is not simply a plan for a new UK city based on old car-based models, or a massive extension of edge-of-town box-home developments, but really a radical re-imagining of how humans move, work and socialise amongst themselves while also serving to promote and rejuvenate nature.

It’s all still very early, but if you’re eager to see and hear more, please do sign up to our event at the Haverhill Arts Centre on the 2nd of March where attendees will be amongst the first to find out.

Working Groups

Behind the scenes, our nearly 40 experts and volunteers, all working pro-bono for the last two months, have also been putting together initial reports on:

• Our Business Case
• Modelling how Community Land Trusts get financing
• Selecting which technologies will be vital to integrate
• How we actually build beautiful four-bedroom homes for £250,000
• Water, transport and ecology

All these reports will be published and also delivered to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) as part of our larger Forest City proposal.

Stakeholders

We’re massively grateful that Jackie Sadek, who has 40 years experience in the construction sector, has accepted our invitation to join our board. More too, the National Federation of Builders have given us their backing publicly.

Just in this last month alone, the team has also interacted with innovative robotic construction firms, architects, masterplanners and the UK’s largest housebuilders.

Discussions continue with local councillors, MPs and central government. These talks are of course confidential and most of it is still at the beginning phases — circulating information about Forest City and how we expect to deliver it.

Finally, our conversations with landowners have really progressed in the last month. In December, Henry D’Abo who owns 2,700 acres came out publicly to support us and we’re massively grateful for his support. We have now had conversations with almost every other major landowner in the area.

Press & PR

Shiv appeared on BBC Suffolk to respond to an anti-Forest City petition organised by the local MP Nick Timothy, which generated further local press including in the Haverhill Echo. Shiv also shared his thoughts at length on the Superurbanism podcast which was published last week. Worth mentioning too is the big piece in the Times we had the week before Christmas.

Since late October we’ve counted 42 pieces in the press ranging from the Haverhill Echo to almost every major national press outlet including the BBC and LBC. The full media list is on our Media page.

In the coming weeks we should also have some press around the announcement of a new board member, so keep your eyes peeled…

Thank You

Finally, although we’re still near the beginning, it’s been an epic effort to date. Every single day Forest City gets approached with offers of help and aid. We couldn’t be more grateful. We’ve managed to get where we are with zero external funding.

Thank you for supporting this hugely ambitious project to get Britain back on its feet and repair the social contract. We can’t wait to share more next month.

— Joe & Shiv