What happens to the villages and farms on the land?

No one's home needs to be destroyed. Existing villages like Cowlinge, Great Thurlow and Withersfield are protected — surrounded by trees and supported in keeping their own identity, becoming villages within a city, much like Hampstead in London or Grantchester in Cambridge.

On farmland: because a properly planned city fits far more people into a smaller footprint than sprawling village extensions, Forest City would actually save the East of England around 21,500 acres of prime farmland compared with building the same number of homes the usual way.