As you say it is totally crazy, I have a friend who is downsizing as his kids are long gone and he has retired. He put his house on the market and within 6 hours he had someone ring him and offer £80k over the asking price
. He did not accept and then the estate agent said they might have to revalue his house as they had several offers well over asking price.
Thinking he had sold he started making offers on smaller properties and lost all of them because he was being outbid by a sizable amount. One place went for over £250k more than the asking price.
He has decided to stay put until it calms down as he might end up paying as much for a smaller house as he gets for his.
People moving out of London is causing a lot of the problems apparently, working from home for over a year has made them realise they dont need to live there anymore and can get a Palace in the Cotswolds for the value of there average house in London.
As far as the infrastructure, they are building about 2000 homes in this area and little or nothing to support all these new residents. A new school and doctors should be the minimum, these should be the first things to go in and the houses to follow together with new roads and junctions.