Editor of The Spectator Andrew Neil has chimed into the debate surrounding the rejection of Marlow Film Studios, suggesting that the multi-million-pound project will ‘test’ an incoming Labour government.

Following Buckinghamshire Council’s refusal of the film studio, which would have been built on Greenbelt land near the A404 Marlow bypass in Little Marlow, a number of mainstream newspapers and well-known figures have shared their reactions to the news.

Two reporters at business-focused publications the Financial Times and City A.M. criticised the decision earlier this month, with Jess Jones, a technology and media reporter at City A.M., describing it as “moronic”.

While the trajectory of big names in the media world being convinced by the economic promise of the studio plans appears to be continuing, right-leaning paper The Daily Telegraph ran a piece last week framing the planning battle as a ‘David v Goliath’-style conflict between out-of-town developers and small-but-mighty locals.

Reporter Lauren Shirreff spoke to Melvin Shergold, a 77-year-old who lives at Westhorpe Park, a residential area bordering the proposed studio site, who told her the development would have “surrounded” his home with “70-foot-tall sheds”.

Local councillors and the populates of Marlow High Street told Ms Shirreff a similar story – that accusations of ‘Nimbyism’ belie a genuine concern for a highways network that could buckle under the strain of hundreds of new commuters and the preservation of the town’s green space, a main draw in attracting former-Londoners to the area.

Andrew Neil, chairman of The Spectator and former editor of The Sunday Times, also tweeted about the project on June 20, blaming an “institutional inertia” for its refusal and describing it as a “test” for an incoming Labour government.

Mr Neil wrote: “Marlow Film Studios is a proposed £750 million film/TV-making hub on 1950s landfill in Bucks. A state-of-the-art studio on a world-class scale in an industry in which we’re already world-beaters offering 4,000 direct and indirect jobs plus hundreds of training places in the audio-visual skills of tomorrow.

“Denied planning permission under the Sunak government because the landfill is in Greenbelt. Will the Starmer government (have the gumption and vigour to) revisit and give the go-ahead?”

Dido Property Ltd, the development company behind the film studio, promised that over 4,000 new jobs would be generated by the project alongside a hefty boost to the local economy – but oppositional campaigners including the Save Marlow’s Greenbelt group have criticised these supposed USPs, suggesting instead that the project’s workforce would largely have been sourced from an existing freelancer pool.

Studio developers are “considering their next steps” and are expected to appeal the decision.