Stop the new town; the wider picture
The consultation phase on the local plan, incorporating the site proposed for 4,000 new homes south of Gartree Road has effectively shifted from public engagement by the promoters into a formal examination process overseen by the Planning Inspectorate.
This local plan and any subsequent planning application will see green wedge land sacrificed and Oadby and Harborough District housing butted up together.
One important point is that there are effectively two parallel processes, the Local Plan process, that is deciding whether this particular land area should be allocated for growth at all, and the planning application process, deciding the detailed development proposals. The land in question has been included in the Harborough plan as a site for potential development,
A site can progress through consultation on one while the other is still ongoing.
Thus far no formal planning application has been lodged but an Environmental Impact Assessment Scoping Request has been undertaken and consulted upon. This is an early-stage document submitted to a planning authority asking it to identify which environmental issues should be examined in an Environmental Impact Assessment for a proposed development.
Whereas this proposed development is a worry and should be opposed, there is a more pressing need to consider the wider picture as Urban and Civic is also promoting in total 4,300 acres of farmland in Harborough District to the immediate south and east of the city of Leicester on behalf of The Wellcome Trust. The application for 4,000 houses south of Gartree Road covers about 931 acres, roughly just under a quarter of the total land holding.
The people of Evington and Stoughton should be concerned in particular as the available evidence suggests that the likely strategic land area associated with Urban & Civic around Stoughton forms a very large arc to the east and south-east of Leicester. It includes a northern sector, Bushby fringe/land south of the A47, Thurnby edge and eastern Evington green wedge, a central sector consisting of Stoughton Grange area, fields adjoining Gartree Road, land around Stoughton Road and Leicester Airport approaches, and finally a southern/eastern sector of countryside toward Great Glen, agricultural land within Harborough District and open land east of Oadby.
Based on publicly available material, the likely long-term concept appears to be a very large urban extension east/south-east of Leicester, potentially phased over many years, with multiple housing parcels, schools, strategic open space, transport infrastructure and mixed-use centres.
Key settlements affected include Stoughton, Oadby, Evington, Great Glen and Thurnby/Bushby.
This matters strategically because Urban & Civic is a major UK “master developer” focused on large-scale residential and mixed-use strategic sites rather than being a traditional housebuilder itself.
The company’s business model is to assemble and promote large land sites, secure planning permission, deliver infrastructure (roads, schools, utilities, parks), then sell serviced land parcels to multiple housebuilders.
The company describes itself as “the UK’s leading Master Developer” focused on “large scale residential led Strategic Sites.”. Urban & Civic was acquired by the Wellcome Trust in 2021.
Key characteristics of the firm are infrastructure-led development, long-term land promotion, partnership with councils and Homes England, “garden community” style developments, parcel sales to national housebuilders and an emphasis on sustainability and placemaking.
Their model is important in UK planning because large strategic housing sites often require complex planning agreements, transport upgrades, schools and health facilities, phased delivery over decades, coordination between many developers.
Urban and Civic’ model has also been discussed in wider UK housing policy debates around housing delivery rates, land banking, infrastructure funding, and “master developer” models for new settlements.
This is a serious company who are feeding into local authority’s need to satisfy housing demand as prescribed by The National Planning Policy Framework, and they are buoyed up by the Governments New Homes Accelerator Programme.
A local Stoughton group has been active for some time in opposition to the proposed planning application south of Gartree Road, this campaign is organised by Stop The New Town (STNT) Action Group, a non-political, volunteer-run, formally constituted community group. STNT is a member of the Community Planning Alliance. It is led by Dr Henri Winand, Chair, STNT (Website StopTheNewTown.org).
On 16 March 2026, Harborough District Council voted by a narrow margin of 17 to 15 to submit its Local Plan to the Planning Inspectorate for independent examination. Councils need to have a valid local plan in order to stop speculative planning applications. However, the planning application for 4,000 new homes south of Gartree Road is included in that plan but is vehemently challenged by STNT who suggest the application fails on all four counts upon which a planning inspector will judge it, which they back up with supporting evidence.
STNT state that:
“The negative consequences of this plan due to the poor choice of strategic site – traffic, flooding, overwhelmed GP services and schools – extend across the entire south Leicestershire and healthcare network, from the A47 and A6 to the M1.”
However, it is important not to simply see the application for 4,000 houses south of Gartree Road as an isolated matter. The whole land holding of the Wellcome Trust in Harborough District will have devastating consequences for Evington and encapsulates Thurnby/Bushby, Stoughton, Great Glen and Oadby in particular, if each parcel receives planning permission.
Concerns feeding objection to the current proposed scheme south of Gartree Road are traffic impacts on Gartree Road, the A6 and the wider south Leicestershire road network, flooding and drainage risks, pressure on GP surgeries and schools, infrastructure funding, loss of agricultural land, settlement coalescence between Evington (the City of Leicester), Oadby, Stoughton, Great Glen and surrounding villages and the viability of delivering promised infrastructure.
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