Harborough District Council to consider 4,000 housing site near Great Glen as part of new Local Plan

Central Government has earmarked land south of Gartree Road, near Stretton Hall, to deliver increased housing targets nationwide after the figure was doubled as a part of Labour’s revision to the national planning policy.

In a letter to Harborough District Council, Homes England confirmed it wanted to press ahead with plans for 4,000 homes – 3,000 of which would fall within the Harborough district and the remainder in Oadby and Wigston.

An earlier application for 10,000 homes in the same area has been withdrawn.

The site is one of a number which will be put forward as potential to deliver the increased housing targets.

The council began working on a new draft Local Plan, for the period 2020-2041, after it was agreed Harborough district would take on a portion of Leicester’s housing need, late last year.

The council argued to not draft a new plan would leave the district vulnerable to speculative housing sites put forward by developers.

Further changes to national targets have complicated matters, but the council has pressed on with updating its Strategic Housing and Economic Land Availability Assessment (SHELA) - which lists the total capacity of sites coming forward for planning permission - to meet a June 2025 deadline.

The SHELA forms part of the new plan which will go out for consultation in January.

The council has assured it would not be deciding where development goes at this point but ‘consulting on proposals’ in a ‘widespread community consultation process’.

Planning portfolio holder Simon Galton has also said the maximum level of housing across the whole district, over the whole 20-year plan period, would be 10,000 new homes.

However, Harborough MP Neil O’Brien remains sceptical.

He said: “The Government’s housebuilder have now confirmed in black and white that they are pressing ahead with plans for 4,000 homes on their site alone. But we know from the council’s own documents and maps that there are loads of other large sites coming forward for planning in the area. In the area around Scraptoft, Thurnby, Glen, Houghton, Newton Harcourt and Stoughton there are sites with potential for nearly 16,000 homes coming forward for permission.

“And this is before the council publishes its updated list of applications. I understand there may well be even more sites coming forward for planning permission, but so far we are all in the dark because the council hasn’t released the updated maps, even to councillors, despite repeated calls for this information to be released.”

He added the government’s plan would cause ‘chaos’ with roads in and out of Leicester ‘already totally choked at rush hour’.

He is also calling for more transparency on the full scale of the proposals and the updated maps.

District council leader Phil Knowles has said: “It’s important to ensure the community have the facts. We are 100 per cent committed to sharing information as early as possible but we have to caveat

that by ensuring we are complying with the necessary rules and regulations. We all appreciate the significant amount of technical work currently going on to prepare the new Local Plan.”