Building on the Stoughton Estate-Part I- The Evington Impact

In a previous article concerns were raised about a plan for 900 new houses south of the A47 at Bushby. It was  highlighted as a possible sign of creeping development (John McFadyen (2025) Beware Creeping Development, The Evington Echo, 7^th December 2025). In addition to this, a large tract of land around Stoughton has been ‘flagged’ to Harborough District Council as having the potential for the building of new houses. This is land formally owned by the Co-op who, during their financial crisis and restructuring, in 2013/2014 sold it to the Wellcome Trust.

The significance to Evington is that, if this land is built upon, the open countryside which serves as a separation area between Stoughton and the Southeast of Evington will be filled in. Open views will be lost, the natural environment undermined, wildlife further displaced, and there will be increased stress on infrastructure such as roads, schools and hospitals. This is even more worrying when considered in conjunction with the outline planning application for 900 houses at Bushby as the two sites meet at Bushby and the plans for about 3,150 new houses at Stoughton Grange, south of Gartree Road, of which approximately 1,200 homes are expected to be delivered by 2041. This will be part of a larger cross border development of 4,000 homes between Harborough and Oadby and Wigston Borough.

The current landowners of the Stoughton site, The Wellcome Trust exist to promote research, and their income arises from an investment portfolio which it uses to pay for its activities. It is a large independent charitable foundation based in London that funds health and biomedical research around the world. Its mission is to improve human and animal health by supporting scientific discovery and innovation.

One such source of The Trust’s funding arises from land ownership and land development. Wellcome Trust bought the Co-op Stoughton estate which it is being suggested can potentially accommodate around 4000 new homes. The land development plans are conducted through Urban and Civic, a subsidiary of the Wellcome Trust, with a wide-ranging business portfolio. Urban and Civic has at the core of its business 14 strategic land sites where they are currently bringing forward, either directly or in partnership, over 16,000 acres of land predominantly within 100 miles of London, for development. As a ‘Master Developer’, they take responsibility for obtaining planning and delivering the sustainable green, grey and community infrastructure to establish high quality places within which they market fully serviced land parcels to housebuilders. Urban and Civic also own Catesby Homes which is also a master developer.

The land in question is mainly agricultural farmed land, defined by the Agricultural Land Classification (ALC) system  as Grade 3b. That is moderate quality and not Best and Most Versatile (BMV), therefore it lacks national protection. It is managed by Farmcare Trading Limited, part of the Welcome Trust/Urban and Civic stable who work with around 20 partners such as Evolution Farms who ran Houghton Lodge Farm until the lease was terminated at the end of 2025.  Stoughton Estate is then managed on a day-to-day basis by Bidwells, a UK property and rural consultancy that provides estate management, strategic advice, and agricultural/property services, including managing the Farmcare estate on behalf of Farmcare/Wellcome Trust. Bidwells manages Farmcare’s land and estates on Farmcare’s behalf, acting as the agent/estate manager for Farmcare’s farming properties and assets. Bidwells also advised the Wellcome Trust during its acquisition of the Farmcare portfolio when Wellcome bought the former Co-operative farms business and renamed it Farmcare Trading Ltd and they continue to provide strategic oversight and property services.

Esentialy, Farmcare (Under the Wellcome Trust/Urban and Civic umbrella), owns and operates the farming business/land, and Bidwells is the external property and rural management adviser/manager that runs the estate and provides strategic services for them. The ‘chain of command’ over this land is complex and aimed at turning it into strategic land parcels to be sold to developers with planning permission ready for building development. The complexity also serves to ‘bamboozle’ planners, residents and local politicians.

It is highly improbable that all the land will be developed at the same time, but it must be considered that as the demand for building additional new houses continues year on year pressure will be exerted upon the local authority to include this land parcel by parcel until it is part of the urban sprawl of Leicester City and is coterminous with Evington.

This may explain Sir Peter Soulsby’s wish to incorporate tracts of Oadby and Wigston Borough and Harborough District into the City of Leicester.

In the next article the politics of development planning and the legislation underpinning it are explored; in the third of three articles the chances and speed of developments will be discussed.

Sources:

• https://www.urbanandcivic.com/portfolio/strategic-sites/stoughton/
• https://pa2.harborough.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=T5QAMOHWKSW00
• https://harborough.opus4.co.uk/planning/localplan/maps/reg19#/center/52.5961,-0.9867/zoom/12/baselayer/b:31/layers/annotations:0,o:12128,o:12165,o:12166,o:12167,o:12168,o:12169,o:12170,o:12171,o:12172,o:12173,o:12174,o:12175,o:12176,o:12177,o:12178,o:12179,o:12180,o:12181,o:12182,o:12183,o:12184,o:12185,o:12186,o:12187,o:12188,o:12189
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKggii-JpCk