Between 2011 and 2021, Bacton gained just 13 new households. But over recent years, planning permission has been granted for 396 new homes in the village. Not enough homes were being built in Mid Suffolk District Council's area, so it was placed under different planning rules.
These made it harder to refuse planning permission for new developments. One local councillor says that has resulted in a "free-for-all" for developers. Villagers say they welcome newcomers, but the pace of growth has been too fast and the impact on infrastructure too great.
Josephine Jackson, 84, says she has "fallen on my feet" after moving to the village, about six miles (10km) north of Stowmarket, 16 months ago. She came from Oxfordshire, where she had lived for 40 years, to be nearer her daughter. She is standing in the doorway of her new Taylor Wimpey home on the Beacon Green estate, which will have 81 homes when complete, and is one of six new estates either being built or planned for the village since 2017.
"The welcome is brilliant," she says. She has joined the local Women's Institute and says she is as "integrated here as I was in Oxfordshire, after all those years". She describes the "whole set-up" in Bacton as "really fabulous", with a doctors' surgery, shop, garage and pub all nearby.
The Bull, Bacton's 16th Century pub, used to overlook fields but is now opposite Beacon Green. Co-owner Rory MacRae, 32, says "new faces" are welcome in the village. "The people are lovely.
It's happened very.
