News

Council Agrees To Accept Overspill Housing From Leicester

Written by HFM News on 19th December 2023

Harborough District Council has approved the controversial plan to accept a share of overspill housing from Leicester.

It means over 1,500 additional homes will be built across the district over the next 13 years.

Harborough is the eighth council is Leicestershire to sign up to the ‘Statement of Common Ground’ after a majority of councillors backed the move at a meeting last night.

All 18 members of the ruling Coalition administration voted in favour of the plan, while 14 opposition Conservative councillors opposed it.

The Council added a safeguard into the decision, reserving the right to withdraw from the agreement if the government publishes changes to planning policy, meaning it does not need to take any of Leicester City’s unmet housing need to get its new Local Plan adopted.

Cllr Phil Knowles, Leader of the council, spoke to HFM:

There has been a big campaign against the area accepting the additional homes, headed-up by Harborough MP Neil O’Brien, who said it was not a legal requirement, but the council argued not agreeing to it would jeopardise its new Local Plan – leading to speculative applications.

Cllr Jon Bateman, leader of the opposition, told HFM he and his group are unhappy at the decision:

The council’s leadership has also tried to reassure residents that the additional numbers will not be as bad as it sounds, saying that because they have delivered more homes in the past three years than their current local plan requires, they can slow down house building in the coming years.

If they can backdate their new plan to 2020, so it includes the homes built over the last three years, they would only need to build 340 homes a year for the rest of the plan’s life – until 2041, less than the current target.

Not having a Local Plan could see the annual figures rise to over 540 homes.

David Atkinson, Head of Planning at Harborough District Council, spoke to HFM: