Sophie Churchill - Chief Executive

I recently did something I’ve never done before, which was to visit a show home, in one of the many new developments in the Forest. I was there because the builder is generously supporting tree planting as each house gets sold. It was a family home with a good dose of romance: it had pink satin cushions throughout and Nigella Lawson - her book, anyway - was all chocolatey in the kitchen.

One of the things people say about The National Forest is that it is a good place to call home. It isn’t remote but nor is it, on the whole, built up and congested. In many places there is a strong sense of community. People can enjoy a rich and varied environment and at the same time visit the cities around it as well as friends and families north, south, east and west.

The Government agrees and we are likely in the coming decades to see an increase in housing. What is the National Forest Company’s view on development?

Firstly, we are not against jobs and homes and we accept that these often mean new building. We’re proud that people want to come here when, before the Forest started, much of the area was blighted. But let us be as ambitious as we can. Let’s have no more enormous sheds without proper greening and the highest environmental credentials. Let’s have homes that meet the very best eco standards and are stylish to live in: I hope plenty of them will be heated with wood chips from The National Forest. And we must preserve green space where it is special to the landscape and to its communities.

Secondly, good development could not matter more. Get it right, and we could be a national leader in the best designed new housing, schools, green ‘lungs’ and public transport. Get it wrong, and all the National Forest Company’s efforts to create a landscape which is good for people, wildlife and the future of the area could be undermined. The right trees have to be in the right places. The right developments - commercial, houses or a mixture - have to be in the right place too.

The National Forest Company is not the planning authority for the Forest (thank goodness!) but we are important influencers and I will be actively promoting this ambition for excellent development with our friends and colleagues. It is a time of great opportunity and we must seize it. If you can, will you keep the pressure up too? Here’s to the first mainstream developer whose pucker show home in The National Forest is in a carbon neutral new housing development.