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Bishop's Stortford would appear to have everything you would look for in a commuter town. It is only 40 minutes to London Liverpool Street, with seven trains an hour at peak times, and it is also well located if you need to travel abroad. Stansted is so close that the locals reckon you can be in your own bed less than an hour after your plane lands. Above all, the town retains the prosperous county-town atmosphere that is so appealing. Walk through the town's hilly, winding main streets, with its maze of alleys and timber-beamed pubs, and you would not dream that you were only 35 miles from the capital.

Yet now change is in the air. Bishop's Stortford is also plumb in the middle of an area earmarked for expansion. The East of England Plan is proposing that up to 20,000 new homes must be built by 2021, although local planners want the number to be nearer 11,000. Most of these new homes will be built on the outskirts of Bishop's Stortford, probably in the strip of land between the A120 bypass and the edge of town. But a considerable number will have to be accommodated in the old town itself. “It is all going to be a sensitive juggling act,” says Tony Jackson, leader of East Herts Council. “We need to expand the town, but we don't want to spoil Bishop Stortford's cosy market town atmosphere. We want to improve the shopping by attracting more big stores, but we don't want to bankrupt our independent retailers.” The new homes pencilled in for the town centre will be concentrated around a £2.5 million new bridge. This, it is proposed, will link a development of some 700 homes on the site of an old goods yard with the Rhodes Arts Complex. “We want to make more of a feature of the river which runs through the town,” says Jackson. “We want new buildings to actually face the river, not back onto it.” Work on a revamped shopping centre is already under way. It is an attractive, carefully concealed catacomb of malls and arcades containing most of the major high street stores. The first phase is finished and the second phase should be finished early next year.

As yet, the expansion of Bishop's Stortford has done nothing to detract from the town's desirability. “Demand is very strong here,” says William Wells, of Mullucks Wells estate agents. “The town is still incredibly popular with couples who want a good, safe environment for their children.” The quality of the schools in the area is a bonus. The Hertfordshire and Essex High School in Warwick Road is very popular and St Mary's Catholic School in Windhill is a mixed state school with a good reputation. Mixed private schools include Haileybury College and Bishop's Stortford College. The most sought-after area is to the northwest side of the town, around Hadham Road, where you will pay about £1 million for a substantial five-bedroom Edwardian house. A four-bed detached house will cost about £750,000. The tree-lined roads on the southeast side, such as Avenue Road and Warwick Road, near the railway station, are also very popular.

There are seriously expensive villages near Bishop's Stortford, including Manuden, three miles away, and Clavering, where Jamie Oliver's family still owns the pub. As a rule the most popular villages are west of the M11, farthest from Stansted. Flights to and from Stansted mostly avoid the centre of Bishop's Stortford, although some “clip” the edges of town. However, National Air Traffic Services is drawing up new flight-paths that affect Stansted: those thinking of buying locally are strongly advised to see its latest proposals at www.nats.co.uk/TCNconsultation .

Aspirational migration is by no means all one-way traffic to the countryside. Derek and Maureen Palmer recently moved from their £900,000 barn conversion in Waterford, 20 miles from Bishop's Stortford, to a new house on Hadham Road because they preferred to bring up their children, Alex, 13, and Georgie, 10, in the town. “There's so much more for them to do,” says Maureen, who works for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. “They have the cinema and bowling in the evening, and school is within walking distance, too. It makes far more sense to live in the town.”

There is also a good stock of more moderately priced houses in Bishop's Stortford. A two-bedroom Victorian or Edwardian terraced house in the town is likely to cost you £200,000. If you want a three-bedroom family home on a housing estate, with a fair amount of green space, look in Bishop's Park or St Michael's Mead and expect to pay about £250,000. You can buy a two-bed flat in St Augustine's Court - a block of 24 apartments being sold by Humberts - for £209,950. “They are popular with young people working in London,” says Nick Davies, of Humberts. “What can you buy in Putney or Guildford for under £210,000?” he says.

But will all this development spoil Bishop's Stortford and make it just another good-value dormitory of London? “We are mindful of that risk,” Jackson says. “That is why we also want to expand our own high-tech and service industries. We don't want to be solely a commuter town - we need to be more sustainable.”

FACT FILE: TWIN TOWNS

Bishop's Stortford in Hertfordshire and Guildford in Surrey are both 40 miles from London. Here is how they compare:

The average house price in Bishop's Stortford is £299,529. In Guildford it is £409,035 (Land Registry).

House prices have risen by 50 per cent in Guildford, and by 42 per cent in Bishop's Stortford, over five years.

The train journey from Bishop's Stortford to Liverpool Street takes from 40 minutes. Guildford to Waterloo takes from 35 minutes.

On the celebrity front, Bishop's Stortford has Posh and Becks living in nearby Sawbridgeworth. Guildford has half the Chelsea football team in Esher.

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