Harborough council leader says MPs have declined meeting over possible extra housing for town

Harborough District Council’s leader says calls for a meeting with local MPs about taking Leicester’s unmet housing need have been declined.

Cllr Phil Knowles says he has written to MPs Neil O’Brien, Alicia Kearns and Alberto Costa to ‘express his disappointment’ they declined to attend a meeting ahead of the authority’s next council meeting. It follows a deferral by the authority on whether to accept property needs from the city.

Leicester City Council is urging district leaders to approve a ‘statement of common ground’ which would see more than 1,500 additional homes built in the district over the next 13 years. So far, seven out of nine authorities have signed the statement.

Harborough District Council says the authorities in Leicestershire are bound by duty to cooperate and if it does not sign the statement of common ground, it will be unlikely to get the next Local Plan, which allocates sites for housing, adopted - putting the district at risk of speculative planning applications.

But the MPs say there is no legal obligation to take the homes.

In a letter to the MPs, Cllr Knowles said: “We are deeply disappointed as we would welcome the opportunity for the differing views. The council has to sign the Statement of Common Ground which is to be debated openly and transparently before we as a council have to take the final decision on this important issue.

“With regards to any questions we may have, we would like to understand why you believe the evidence we have had from external and internal planning advisors is not a compelling reason enough for us to consider signing. We ask again for you to consider meeting us in open forum to debate the issue. There is over a month to the next council meeting and I am sure we can find a date to suit us all.”

Harborough MP Neil O’Brien – who launched a petition against the homes, which has some 2,000 signatures – says the authority has all the information it needs to decline the proposal.

He said: "The local council have already had all the information they need to turn down this huge, unfair increase in our housing target. They have even had a letter from the housing minister making it clear that there is no government formula that requires them to increase our housing target by a quarter.

“I am happy to help if they have genuine questions but all we asked from the local council is for them to write down what it is that they are still not clear about, and what questions they still have. But they have chosen not to do that.

“They are making a choice to push this through, even though there is no legal requirement to do so. It is very clear from the thousands of local people who have already signed the petition against this that local people don't want this, but the council are pressing ahead anyway, which is disappointing."

A decision on the ‘Statement of Common Ground’ will be made at the next full council meeting in November. If approved, it would see housing targets in Harborough district increased by nearly a quarter.