Will taxpayers pay for the land? Will anyone's home be compulsorily purchased?

No on both counts. Land for Forest City is being secured through voluntary options—negotiated privately with landowners who are free to refuse—and nobody's home will be compulsorily purchased. Existing homes will be integrated into the city; we're trying to build homes, not destroy them.

Landowners who sell are paid well above agricultural value, and farming families affected by the change will be compensated properly through arrangements negotiated privately, not imposed. Taxpayers don't pay for the land: its cost, and that compensation, is baked into the price of every home sold. On current costings, housing sales return around £13 billion to the development corporation—roughly double the entire cost of the land and compensation combined—with the surplus contributing to the infrastructure fund.