A Northamptonshire MP has warned the government that its growth area strategy will fail unless it prevents the Highways Agency from, in effect, blocking developments.

In a Commons debate last week, Kettering Conservative MP Philip Hollobone criticised the agency for imposing Article 14 “stop notices” on schemes along the A14, which runs through north Northamptonshire.

He said: “Unless the minister and his department seize proper ownership of this growth area agenda and bring other government agencies, primarily the Highways Agency, into line with their ambitions, these development plans will fail.”

He cited a Northamptonshire council report that warned that unless the agency was prepared to allow more traffic on the A14, it would be impossible to deliver the housing envisaged in the Milton Keynes and south Midlands growth area strategy.

He said the agency and the government had failed to align their development and roads strategies, which he said was a “failure of joined-up government on a considerable scale”.

The agency issued the stop notices on the developments because they were concerned that they would lead to increased traffic.