I spoke at the launch of Tysoe's neighbhourhood plan this morning and roughly said this: Thank you for asking me here today. It’s fantastic to see so many people turn out for this event, some of which I know, some of which are new faces. The neighbourhood plan group came together out of the need to defend the village against the Gladman application, but I’m excited to see that it has now turned its attention to the proactive task of creating a neighbourhood plan. I have no doubt that they will appeal the decision, as rapacious developers across the country have done, however by the time it gets to appeal I feel you will have a number of things on your side. Firstly recent changes to the national Planning policy guidance. These define how the NPPF should be interpreted. As you will know I have campaigned to change the NPPF, rather upsetting my boss in the process, and feel that these guidance changes go a long way to addressing many of the loopholes that developers like Gladman have been exploiting. Then there is the core Strategy, which again, by the time an appeal is heard, I would hope will be submitted and hence carry more weight. The core strategy really is a vital document for villages that want to defend themselves against development in inappropriate locations, but so too is a neighbourhood plan. Neighbourhood plans are part of this Government’s localism agenda. Now before you all begin to boo and hiss at the mention of localism, give me a chance to explain. Localism is about moving decision making as close to those that are affected by the decision as possible. It’s got a bad rep in recent years, because where councils have failed to get their core strategies in place this hasn’t happened. But core strategies are how localism is designed to be delivered. Where once housing targets were dictated from upon high, now a council is responsible for creating its own evidence base and coming up with its own figures. That’s localism. Where once a local plan had to conform to a Regional Spatial Strategy, now it has to conform to the current and future needs of a local area. That’s localism. Where once central government could impose an eco-town on an area without consultation, now sites have to be allocated through the local plan. That’s localism. So make no mistake, this government is committed to localism, and once we have our local plan in place development will be local plan, not developer led. And where it is local plan led, then on an even more localised level it should also be neighbourhood plan led. That’s not to say that the neighbourhood plan can override the core strategy, in particularly you can’t say no to any housing or refuse to include an identified site, but you can consider where housing may be more appropriate if no sites are allocated in your area, how it should look, and what its mix should be. That’s real localism and I’m proud to be part of a government that is pushing this agenda. So I wish you luck on the neighbourhood plan and thank you again for asking me here today.