Building on the Stoughton Estate-Part III-Do we need to and can we fight it?
You may ask why does this matter to Evington? If you consider the large parcels of land around Stoughton, up to the A47 and down to the South of Gartree Road and Oadby, you will see that building on these sites will severely reduce the current green wedge which provides separation between the Southeast of Evington and Bushby, Houghton-on-the-Hill and Stoughton. This is not just a case of it is nice to look out over open land, but it is good for the environment and our mental wellbeing. Such building also reduces the agricultural land available for farming, thus eating into food security.
One must also consider the longer term as more and more land is swallowed up for development in order to meet the targets ‘imposed’ on local councils at each planning cycle and they are forced to compromise and include more green wedge land in future local plans.
The Leicester City Local Plan to 2036 has allocated 71% of its proposed housing to brownfield sites (6,668 houses) and 29% to Greenfield sites ((2,686 houses). This is very much in line with the Labour Government’s strategy to prioritise brownfield development in seeking to build 1.5 million homes across England during this parliamentary term. Even so they cannot meet their allocated number of houses which, under the duty to co-operate become the responsibility of neighbouring councils who are each allocated a share.
Unlike the City of Leicester, Harborough District has very few brownfield sites and as a result most of the allocated sites are greenfield, including large strategic sites around the Leicester Urban Area, Market Harborough, Broughton Astley, Kibworth, Great Glen and others, accounting for the bulk of the 6,422 new homes allocated. Council evidence says just one small brownfield site is included among preferred allocations.
The draft Local Plan 2020-2041 (Regulation 19) sets out indicative numbers for new homes in allocated areas:
Leicester Urban Area allocations: 2,450 homes
Market Towns (e.g., Market Harborough, Lutterworth): 1,670 homes
Large Villages (e.g., Broughton Astley, Kibworth): 1,500 homes
Medium Villages: 452 homes
Small Villages: 350 homes
If this plan is found ‘sound’ (is supported) by the Planning Inspectorate after the inspector tests whether the plan is positively prepared, justified, effective and consistent with national policy, the inspector issues a report recommending adoption.
After a positive inspector’s report, the local authority formally adopts the plan, and it becomes part of the statutory development plan. Under section 38(6) of the 2004 Act, planning decisions must be made in accordance with the development plan unless material considerations indicate otherwise. That gives the plan strong legal weight.
Allocated sites become strategically approved in principle if the Local Plan allocates housing sites, employment land and infrastructure corridors. Those allocations are now policy-backed which means applications on allocated land are much harder to refuse on principle. Arguments about “whether the site should be developed at all” usually fall away and objections shift to details (design, access, ecology, layout), not principle.
Thus, arguing about development on land allocated within the local approved plan is largely fruitless.
So, what about speculative planning applications that fall outside the Local plan such as the application for 900 plus houses and infrastructure south of the A47 at Bushby and the newly submitted plan for 4,000 houses south of Gartree Road, and areas, flagged to the local council as potential future sites, such as the 4,000-house strategic site around Stoughton?
To set the context first, housing need is calculated using the Government’s Standard Method, set out in the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). The figure is published annually as “Local Housing Need” (LHN) for each authority. It is not directly imposed as a housing target by the Planning Inspector, but councils must use it when preparing or reviewing their Local Plan.
The number calculated using The Standard Method based upon baseline household growth and on household projections from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) plus an affordability uplift. An adjustment is applied where house prices are high relative to earnings, Urban uplift is applied in large cities such as Leicester, Birmingham, etc. which receive a percentage uplift. Thus, the annual local housing need figure is determined.
Although Local Housing Need (LHN) figures are not mandatory, councils that propose housing numbers below them without robust justification risk the Planning Inspectorate rejecting their plan at examination, leaving them vulnerable to speculative planning applications.
Under current national policy councils must plan for at least 15 years from adoption and housing supply must show a 5-year deliverable housing land supply with a full 15 plus year trajectory. Figure are reviewed annually.
If the plan meets housing requirements (often derived from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities methodology) and the council can demonstrate a 5-year housing land supply, developers have less ability to use the “tilted balance” argument under national policy. Therefore, speculative greenfield applications outside allocations become harder to win on appeal.
A Local Plan typically covers a 10–15-year period, becomes the primary basis for all planning decisions and limits ad hoc or speculative development outside allocations. In summary, if the inspector “approves” the Local Plan it becomes the legally binding framework for planning decisions, allocated sites gain strong policy support, housing numbers and land supply become settled (for now), refusals contrary to the plan become harder to defend and only legal (not policy) challenges remain possible.
Thus, we can conclude that if building is allocated within an approved local plan opposition to it is largely fruitless, however speculative development when an approved local plan exists is possible to resist. In the case of proposed development within Harborough District, the Council themselves state:
“The Draft Local Plan is the long-term plan to guide development within the district in the period to 2041. It sets out a strategy for the amount, location and design of new built development (such as homes, schools, employment, retail) whilst helping to protect the countryside, important green spaces and our unique built and natural heritage from inappropriate development, as well as improve the natural environment and tackle climate change.”
Posted as an appendage to this article is a draft planning objection which also applies with some small modifications, to the recently submitted planning application for land south of Gartre Road and the flagged strategic plot around Stoughton
Sources:
1-https://consultations.leicester.gov.uk/planning/local-plan-documents/user_uploads/leicester-city-council-shelaa-november-2022.pdf?utm
3-https://news.leicester.gov.uk/news-articles/2025/september/developer-selected-for-next-phase-of-house-building-at-ashton-green/?utm
4-https://www.strategiclandgroup.co.uk/insights/meeting-housing-need-in-leicestershire?utm
6- https://harborough.oc2.uk/document/61/5858?utm
7- https://harborough.oc2.uk/document/61/5858?utm
8-https://www.harboroughmail.co.uk/news/people/planning-applications-for-more-than-2000-homes-currently-awaiting-decision-in-harborough-district-5277460?utm
9- https://harboroughfm.co.uk/big-turnout-at-public-meeting-over-new-town-plan/?utm
10- https://www.harborough.gov.uk/info/20045/call_for_sites/387/call_for_sites?utm
