North West Leicestershire towns and villages might not have to accommodate the Leicester's housing overspill following a U-turn in Parliament last week.

However, the announcement was made by a minister who was about to be sacked on behalf of a Government on the verge of implosion.

In May, North West Leicestershire was told it had to build more than 5,000 extra homes over the next 14 years to to help meet a Leicester City Council shortfall.

It means the region's housing target almost doubled, with over 10,000 houses to be constructed by 2036.

But now, Leicester City Council and other authorities across the wider county, await the outcome of the search for a new Prime Minister and the selection of a new cabinet before they can be sure the changes will be made.

Leicester had been asked to build 39,400 new homes between 2020 and 2036 after the Government announced that the 20 largest cities in England would need to increase their new housing targets by 35 per cent.

However, the council said it did not have room for all the homes within its borders.

That meant an 18,700 home shortfall would then have been picked up by the districts and boroughs.

As neighbouring authorities, they had a legal obligation to work with the city to find space for the developments.

For some councils - including North West Leicestershire - this meant space would need to be found for around twice as many homes than their own housing targets had set out.

In Blaby district, which was apportioned the largest share of the unmet needs, an additional 5,536 more homes were allocated, bringing its target for the 16 year period to 10,992.

However, it now seems the Conservatives – at least those who governed the country until last week's events – are minded to remove this obligation on neighbouring authorities.

Michael Gove, the recently deposed Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, said: "We will also end the so-called duty to co-operate, which has often led some urban authorities to offload their responsibility for development on to other areas in a way that has meant that we have had not urban regeneration but suburban sprawl."

MP for Bosworth, Dr Luke Evans, has welcomed the decision, labelling the previous legal duty to co-operate an 'onerous obligation'.

He said: "I was very pleased to hear the Secretary of State confirm that, under the new Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill, this onerous obligation will be removed.

Dr Evans was one of five local MPs who raised concerns with the Government about the overspill of homes which will be forced onto their constituencies as Leicester have been unable to meet their planning numbers.

Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council had also criticised the decision to pass the unmet need to the county.

Lead member for housing, Councillor David Bill, said the borough would not be able to cope with its allocation of 2,992 extra homes – the third highest of all the districts.

He said: "There are no further brownfield sites available [in the district], they've long since been taken up,"

"So any additional housing is bound to go out into the countryside. It'll mean even greater loss of countryside and even more congestion on the roads. We simply don't have sufficient capacity in the schools, surgeries or the hospital."

It is not yet known what this change would mean for Leicester City Council or whether any of the districts and boroughs would opt to take on the extra homes without the obligation to do so.