Neighbour wants access rights to our private driveway because their driveway is too narrow to get a car down - they want to sell their land with planning permission so want an access road - England

Just moved into our new house and turns out our neighbour passed away. Now first time I met their adult child, they mentioned to me about getting permission from us to have access rights to our drive because theirs is too narrow once you get to their house you can’t get a car down the side of the house. So they can fit one car on a driveway currently. We have a much wider driveway and a longer one that fits about three cars. Didn’t really say anything back but every time I’ve seen them now they’ve brought up having access rights to our drive. Now both of our houses have a huge amount of land which the driveways move into. They let slip today that they’re planning on getting planning permission to build two houses at the back of the land on which their inherited house is. Except their drive is too narrow. So it seems they’re sneakily trying to get access rights to our drive so they can essentially create a road with access rights so cars and vehicles can get to the back onto the land they plan to sell. So we’d have to give up our driveway and part of our garden for this to happen if we give them access rights.

My plan is to say no outright. No access rights. They don’t have any, there’s no easement either, there’s always been a fence between the driveways. I’m really annoyed at how sneaky they’ve been about this, hoping we’d say yes before we knew their plans. I don’t think they meant to tell us their plans, it’s just slipped out without thinking.

And they mentioned that their sibling is a solicitor, which I think is meant to put fear of god into us that they’ll take legal action against us if we say no.

Just wondering; they can’t force access rights upon us to create a road through our land so that vehicles can access the land at the back of their house? It is our private driveway on the deed so I suspect the answer is no, but I just want to check.