Letters released today (12/05/2023) from the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Michael Gove, share his Department’s “significant concerns” about Liberal Democrat-run Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council’s performance on planning as it is “indicative of a very poor quality service to local residents”.

On the 12th of April Michael Gove wrote to 10 local planning authorities at risk of ‘designation’ – the step before being put into special measures.

This comes on the back of Dr Luke Evans’, the Member of Parliament for Bosworth, continued efforts to hold the Liberal Democrat group to account on their failure to sort out local planning, an issue which the Borough Council is solely responsible for.

The local MP has been raising concerns about the Liberal Democrat leadership and its ability to put in place an up-to-date Local Plan, most recently raising this delay with the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at PMQs, who responded by saying “the Council is failing in its duty”.

Letters released on May 12th show that the Housing Secretary wrote to 10 poorly performing Councils across the country, including Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council.

The Housing Secretary states the performance level of the council between October 2020 and September 2022 was at 46.5%, far below the expected threshold of 70%.

Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, wrote “[This] is indicative of a very poor quality service to local residents... That is not good enough.”

Of the 10 Planning Authorities who were written to by the Housing Secretary, Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council are the only Planning Authority which has a performance level below 50%.

The Housing Secretary warned Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council that if performance is not vastly improved by June 2023 it will be designated, meaning future applicants could submit planning applications directly to the Planning Inspectorate.

The warning came with strict expectations for performance improvements, with the Housing Secretary adding “I want to be clear, however, that I expect the performance of your planning service to exceed our performance thresholds and stay above it consistently.

“I will monitor your performance closely and, if during this period your performance falls below the required threshold, I will not hesitate to use my powers to designate your council later this year.”

Upon learning of the letter, Dr Luke Evans responded “For three years I have been raising concerns about the Liberal Democrats’ lack of leadership on planning, and for three years they have blamed the Government, developers and the County Council. Yet the picture is very clear, fault lies with the Lib Dem Leader of the Borough Council and his group.

“They have turned down the offer of help, blamed Leicestershire County Council, but the performance statistics don’t lie. It takes a lot for a Secretary of State to consider designating a Planning Authority and if this happens, we – the local community – will lose yet further control of planning in our area, something that is already drastically reduced given the lack of an up-to-date Local Plan.”

A copy of the letter on the Governments website, should readers be interested, can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/letter-from-the-dluhc-secretary-of-state-to-local-planning-authorities-at-risk-of-designation