Three inspectors open the Harborough Local Plan examination today, testing whether its 13,182-home housing target is high enough to be judged under 2023 rules.

The public examination of Harborough’s new Local Plan opens at 10am today, Wednesday 12 August, at the Symington Building in Market Harborough, and the first question on the table could shape everything that follows: whether the plan’s housing numbers are high enough for it to be judged under the older, more forgiving version of national planning policy. (Harborough District Council)

The plan sets out where development across the district should go up to 2041. Its Policy DS01 puts the housing requirement at 13,182 homes between 2020 and 2041: 657 homes a year up to 2036, falling to 534 a year after that. The higher early figure includes 123 homes a year that Harborough has agreed to take towards Leicester’s unmet housing need. (Bidwells, Matter 1 written statement)

A panel of three planning inspectors appointed by the Secretary of State, R Barrett, L Nurser and W Cooper, will conduct the examination. They called today’s focused hearing themselves, saying the matter is significant for the progress of the examination. (Panel Note 4)

Why one paragraph of national policy matters so much

The government published a new National Planning Policy Framework in December 2024, and it applies to plans from 12 March 2025 onwards, with one exception. A plan that reached its pre-submission stage on or before that date can still be examined under the older December 2023 framework, but only if its draft housing requirement meets at least 80 per cent of the area’s local housing need. Harborough published its pre-submission draft on 10 March 2025, two days inside the deadline, so for this plan everything turns on the 80 per cent test. (Bidwells, Matter 1 written statement)

That test is not straightforward here. The inspectors’ own note records that, excluding the contribution to Leicester’s unmet need, the plan’s draft housing requirement would meet 74 per cent of local housing need as calculated under the 2024 rules, and asks what the implications are if that is the right way to look at it. (Panel Note 4)

The arithmetic behind that comes out clearly in the written statements. Planning consultancy Bidwells, appearing for Taylor Wimpey Strategic Land, calculates that Harborough’s local housing need stood at 723 homes a year when the draft was published, so the 80 per cent threshold is 579 a year. The plan’s own starting point for Harborough’s need is 534 homes a year, below that line; only the Leicester top-up lifts the early-years figure to 657. Bidwells argues homes promised to Leicester should not count towards the test of whether Harborough is meeting its own need. (Bidwells, Matter 1 written statement)

Bar chart of the homes-per-year figures in dispute at the Harborough Local Plan examination: full 2024-method housing need of 723, the plan's 2020 to 2036 target of 657 including the Leicester top-up, and the plan's base figure of 534, against a dashed line at the 80 per cent threshold of 579
Graphic by Harborough News.

The council will defend its approach at the hearing alongside five housebuilder representatives listed in the draft timetable: Bidwells for Taylor Wimpey Strategic Land, DLP for Lagan Homes, Planning Prospects for Richborough, and Savills appearing for both Barratt Redrow and Barratt David Wilson. Written statements were due by 24 July and six were submitted, including the council’s own. (Draft hearing timetable)

What happens today, and what comes next

Today’s session runs in the Symington Building on Adam and Eve Street from 10am, with an afternoon session from 2pm if needed. Only parties invited in advance by the inspectors can speak, but the council says the hearing will be livestreamed and is encouraging residents to watch online via its council meetings page. (Hearing sessions)

The main hearing sessions, where individual sites and policies get examined, are scheduled for the weeks beginning 9, 23 and 30 November 2026. All the examination papers are collected on the council’s Local Plan examination pages. (Harborough District Council)

What it means for you

If the inspectors accept that the plan qualifies to be examined under the 2023 framework, the examination proceeds on the housing numbers as drafted, and attention moves to the November hearings on where those homes should actually go. If they conclude it must be tested against the 2024 framework instead, the district’s calculated housing need is higher, and the inspectors have asked openly what that would mean for the plan’s soundness. In practice that could mean finding land for more homes, substantial changes, or delay, and it is the outcome the housebuilders at today’s table are pressing for.

Until a new plan is adopted, planning applications in the district continue to be decided under existing policies; our Market Harborough planning news page explains how to track and comment on them, and our house prices page follows what homes here actually sell for. We will report what the inspectors decide once their conclusion on today’s question is published.