Harborough neighbourhood plan grants: £10,000 by 18 Sept

Parish councils, town councils and neighbourhood forums across Harborough district can bid for grants of up to £10,000 from a new £50,000 council fund to write or update a neighbourhood plan, and expressions of interest close on 18 September 2026. (Harborough District Council)

The fund exists because the national one stopped. Government-funded neighbourhood planning support, run for years by the charity Locality, closed after the 2025 spending review: the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government told Locality it could not commission new services, and its neighbourhoodplanning.org site now carries a single notice saying the website has closed and some toolkits have moved to gov.uk. Harborough District Council says its scheme has been introduced “following the withdrawal of national neighbourhood planning grant funding in 2025”. (Locality, Harborough District Council neighbourhood planning)

Eight villages are mid-review right now

The timing matters because a large number of parishes across the district are part way through this work right now. Harborough News read all 60 records in the council’s own neighbourhood planning directory on 15 August. They cover 38 approved neighbourhood areas, of which 30 already have a plan formally “made”, the legal term for adopted. (Neighbourhood planning directory, Harborough District Council)

Eight of those 30 are in the middle of a review. Fleckney, Husbands Bosworth, Lubenham and Saddington are listed as under review; Broughton Astley and Scraptoft have reviews at examination; Shearsby’s review has been submitted to the council; and Great Bowden’s 2025 review has reached referendum stage. A further seven areas have been designated but have no plan yet, among them Lutterworth, Little Bowden, Thurnby and Bushby, Ullesthorpe, Welland, Arden and the Logan and Town Centre area of Market Harborough. Bitteswell has submitted a first plan to the council.

That is 16 communities with live work in progress, and reviews of adopted plans are explicitly eligible for the money alongside new plans.

What the grant pays for

Funding can cover community engagement and consultation, evidence gathering and technical studies, planning consultancy and specialist advice, drafting and reviewing planning policies, and the practical costs of venue hire, publicity, printing and project websites. Applicants must submit an expression of interest with a project plan setting out activities, costs, milestones and timescales, and bids are assessed against eligibility, value for money and whether the project can realistically progress. The council says funding is limited and awards depend on the available budget, and that it aims to assess applications within 21 working days of the expression of interest window closing. (Neighbourhood planning grants 2026)

Cllr Rosita Page, cabinet lead for planning, said neighbourhood plans “give local communities a real opportunity to influence how their area develops”, and that the council knows the process “requires significant time, effort and resources”.

Why this lands now

A made neighbourhood plan is not advisory. Once adopted it becomes part of the statutory development plan and is used in deciding planning applications, which is what separates it from a village survey or a wish list. The council is clear about the limits too: a neighbourhood plan cannot prevent development that is otherwise sustainable or appropriate, and if it allocates housing it cannot set growth below the level in the council’s own development plan. (Harborough District Council)

The context is the district-wide Local Plan, whose public examination opened on 12 August with a hearing on whether its 13,182-home housing requirement is high enough for the plan to be judged under the older 2023 national rules. Parishes with an out-of-date neighbourhood plan face the prospect of a new district plan landing on top of policies written years earlier, which is exactly the situation a review is meant to fix, and exactly what this money is for.

What it means for you

If you are a parish or town councillor, or involved in a neighbourhood forum, the deadline for expressions of interest is 18 September and the form is a Microsoft Forms page linked from the council’s neighbourhood planning grants page. Questions go to neighbourhoodplans@harborough.gov.uk. You will need costed activities and a timetable, not just an intention, so the practical step this month is getting quotes from planning consultants before filling the form in.

If you are a resident, the point at which you get a say is the consultation your parish runs, and that consultation is one of the things this grant pays for. To find out whether your village already has a made plan, or a review under way, the council’s neighbourhood planning directory lists every area with its current stage. Our Market Harborough planning news page covers how applications across the district are decided.

We will report which communities receive awards once the council has assessed the first round.