Neil O’Brien, MP for Harborough, convened a meeting in Harborough to discuss the need for planning reform, with senior Officials from Harborough District Council (HDC) and HM Treasury. The meeting was attended by Council Leader, Cllr Phil King, joint Chief Executive Norman Proudfoot and Planning leads, who met with Treasury Officials responsible for planning and housing policy.

Ahead of the meeting, the visitors were taken on a tour to a number of sites that had been approved for house building in Harborough District, including Farndon Fields, Burnmill Road and Airfield Park.

Neil said, “It was a very useful meeting and I’m grateful to HDC for hosting. We discussed a number of issues including the process for granting permissions, site restrictions and conditions, as well as the need for greater flexibility with developer financial contributions, so the communities are able to benefit from the development.

The current system leads to housebuilding happening in the wrong place too often, and we need to reform the system to empower local communities and councillors to be able take more control over where development happens, and how financial contributions are spent to improve the areas.”

Council Leader, Cllr Phil King said, “It's very important to have the opportunity to meet with Treasury Officials here and for us to be able to show them the local impact of decisions taken centrally.

Councillors and Council Officials work incredibly hard on behalf of local residents, and we’re always keen to work with policy makers to help drive improvements where possible.”