What is Forest City?
An overview of the proposed development and its implications for our area.
Forest City (Forest City 1) is a proposed privately led new city on farmland east of Cambridge. Developers plan Britain's first new city in over 50 years: roughly 45,000 acres of land, 400,000 homes for about 1 million people, with 12,000 acres of new deciduous forest.
Scale and location
The city would occupy greenfield land east of Cambridge, a footprint roughly equal to Bristol. Most buildings would be six-storey "gentle density" akin to Paris or Barcelona. The developers propose modular timber construction and off-grid energy via solar and small modular reactors.
Housing model
Homes would be sold at around £350,000 using a Community Land Trust (CLT) model: residents buy homes but the city retains land ownership. The developers claim this keeps housing permanently affordable. They also promise £55 billion in annual GDP after 20 years through a special economic zone (SEZ).
Timeline and powers
The project relies on parliamentary legislation to grant development corporation powers, including compulsory purchase. Developers hope to move at "startup speed" within the current parliamentary term. Opposition is growing. West Suffolk MP Nick Timothy has warned it would "erase ancient villages … destroying vast tracts of irreplaceable countryside and productive farmland."