Will Forest City destroy the countryside?

No. Forest City sets aside 12,000 acres—more than a quarter of the site—as a permanent nature reserve, alongside a 1,600-acre reservoir with natural wetland edges. The land today is almost entirely intensive arable farmland, which supports far less wildlife than the woodland, meadow and marsh that will replace it on that quarter.

Every ancient and veteran tree on the site is retained. The reserve is designed for the return of species Britain has lost: beavers, storks, otters. Rewilding projects like Knepp show what former farmland can become in a couple of decades; Forest City does it at ten times the scale, protected permanently, and pays for it without a penny of public money.