the south east is picking up the tab for all the people who want to move out of the capital, or from other parts of the country, more jobs, better prospects, and to retire to, that is if they can't afford Spain or France.
Which means that more and more of villages are being turned into towns, with housing added on, and towns are stretching out to become cities.
Cambridge is now a place to settle in and not just for the students and faculty of the various colleges. Its expansion has been huge when you see what it was like a few years ago. Same for much of Hertfordshire, Essex, once sleepy pleasant villages now are just hubs for the commuters or second home wallahs, much has changed in the last twenty years, i find the same when visiting relatives, their little backwater is now full to brimming with incomers from overseas, i am being a little polite here.