Andrew Rackstraw has been living in Marlow for almost three decades, a small, rich city on the River Theems about 30 miles west of London. The main streets are littered with luxury boutiques, high-end cafés and shops such as Saddle Safari, the bicycle shop of Mr. Rackstraw.
With a population of around 14,000, Marlow also has a plush cinema and a rowing club that dates from the 19th century. Around the corner of the store of Mr. Rackstraw is a restaurant with Michelin star. Further on the road is the only two-michelin-starred pub from Great Britain.
It is the photo of an idyllic English town.
But there is a threat, as the locals see, for the quiet charm of Marlow: a proposal to build a film and TV studio complex of 750 million pounds ($ 950 million). Plans include 18 soundstages, workshop space, offices and outdoor film parties over 90 hectares between Marlow and the smaller village of Little Marlow.
For more than three years, many residents of Marlow have opposed the project, dubious about the promises of the developers that it will yield thousands of jobs, including creative roles and more things for the economy of the city. “It will have the biggest impact on Marlow we have ever seen because of its scale,” Mr Rackstraw said on a recent morning in his store.
In recent months, the struggle for this studio has adopted the national significance as a marker of how far the British government will use the development as a means to breathe new life into the stagnant economy of the nation. But the proposed film studio is not a crucial infrastructure or housing, in contrast to much of the other development that the government has sworn to accelerate.
Marlow is “already suffocated with traffic,” said Mr. Rackstraw. The studio would bring thousands of more cars, he added, and the city would “lose the element that people are pulling to Marlow – the fact that it is not spoiled like so many other cities.”
Opponents seemed to overcome last May when the city council rejected the planning application. But only a few months later a new government, led by the Labor Party, breathed new life into the studioslannen.
The creative industries of Great Britain, including film and TV production, are designated as a central part of the government's economic growth agenda. These industries have long been an important cultural and economic power for the country, which extend to the early 1900s. Alfred Hitchcock helped shape the thriller genre in the 1930s in Britain. But the country also became a top destination for international productions, especially since the 1970s when “Star Wars” filmed just outside of London. More recently, blockbusters such as “Wicked” and “Barbie” were filmed here. It is the largest production hub for Netflix outside of North America.
The Labor Government has said that economic growth is the number 1 mission, but since the party came to power last summer, growth is usually elusive. Nuisance due to tense public finances, the government depends on changes to the nation's planning system as a crucial lever in generating growth. Ministers have stated that they will “support the builders, not the blockers” to breathe new life into the British economy.
The developers behind the project, led by Robert Laycock, the Chief Executive of the so -called Marlow Film Studios, appealed in September against the decision of the council. A month later, Angela Rayner, the Deputy Prime Minister and State Secretary for Housing, Communities and Local Government, entered and said that she would decide whether she would give approval, a relatively rare intervention.
“There is a growing consensus in the United Kingdom that the planning system is too restrictive and that this causes problems,” said Anthony Breach, a researcher for Center for Cities. “It's too difficult to build, it's too uncertain, it's too judicial.”
But the Labor party started to loosen the rules and there has been a “change in mood music”, he added.
Last month the government said that it supported the addition of a third runway to Heathrow Airport, which may put an end to a debate about two decades on this subject. Ministers have also made it easier to build more houses around shuttle routations and to accelerate decisions about large infrastructure projects such as nuclear power stations and wind farms. “The answer cannot always be no,” said Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor of the Treasury, recently.
The future of the Marlow film studio is uncertain. A planning inspector who supervises a five -week public investigation, which ends on Monday, will make a recommendation to Mrs. Rayner. Another studio project, just seven miles from Marlow, also hopes for Mrs. Rayner's approval to destroy a rejected request.
Mr Laycock opted for the country on which he wanted to build on about ten years ago. “It's really difficult to do something in this country,” he said. But he said he was enthusiastic about the changes of the government to “get us out of this routine” of not wanting to do ambitious projects.
The majority of the development would be on fields of thistles near different lakes where red kites fly above the head. But the complex would also cover almost a small part of the housing, which includes more than 50 mobile homes where many pensioners live and a house of the early 18th century converted into apartments.
Thorsten Polleit, an economist who lives in one of the converted apartments, testified in the research that residents would “be completely surrounded, literally locked up” by the development.
One of the reasons why the Marlow studio is disputed is that it is presented on a so-called green belt, which is protected against development to stop urban proliferation. Green Belt is 13 percent of the land of England.
The government intends to classify some of the parts of the poor quality green belt as “gray belt” and thus open it to development, a change that is mainly welcomed because it can accommodate more housing where people want the most the most Living and work.
The plans for the Marlow studio also come after a tree in StudioKuil in Great -Britain. In the past five years, Studio Space has doubled to around six million square feet, since developers and local authorities have been capitalized on interest from American streaming giants, including Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime and British government support for the sector.
But the production industry was hurt in 2023 by the Hollywood attacks, because most spending comes from the United States. And the large streamers have also spent less on content in recent years. Last year the industry started to recover, with £ 5.6 billion issued in Great Britain on film and high-quality TV production, of which 86 percent came from abroad. That was 31 percent more than in 2023, but did not return to the highlights of 2021 and 2022.
“2024 was a transition year from the worst parts of the strikes,” said Adrian Wootton, the Chief Executive of the British Film Commission. He feels 'carefully optimistic' about this year, because filming recording again, including for 'Star Wars' TV shows and season 4 of 'Bridgerton', and the benefits of improved tax reduction measures introduced last year.
The committee has supported the expansion of the studio room, including projects that are still under development, such as in Marlow, but is not “in the drum and says we need even more,” said Mr. Wootton.
Despite the obstacles, Mr Laycock, the Chief Executive of Marlow -Filmstudios, is dedicated to having the studio near Marlow. It is the “right and only” location, he said partly, because it is less than 10 miles away from Pinewood Studios, where many of the James Bond films were filmed. Mr Laycock is a second cousin from Ian Fleming, the author of the Bond Books, a connection that he emphasizes in the midst of accusations that he and his team do not have enough experience in the film industry.
“Nobody denies that the planning system needs reform,” says Anna Crabtree, a parish councilor for Little Marlow, the village adjacent to the studio. But, she claims, one of the problems is that the system is biased against people with money who can continue “unrealistic proposals that the local population knows are not going to work.”
The struggle is “a huge drain for the local community,” she said. “It is really stressful for the locals.”
