Bob Neill, the son of a shopkeeper, also has a busy conference schedule. Monday sees him discuss the planning reforms with Conservative councillor and CCA board member, Gary Porter, one of four experts who helped write the Draft National Planning Policy Framework. The event is hosted by Savills, one of Britain's biggest property brokers.

Tuesday, Neill is the guest of free market think tank, the Adam Smith Institute and Berwin Leighton Paisner, law firm to numerous property companies and major developers, to discuss ‘where next’ for the planning system. Not to be outdone, house builders Crest Nicholson, have also teamed up with a think tank, the Social Market Foundation, and invited the minister to discuss whether there are ‘Enough Homes In All The Right Places?’

Neill has accused those opposed to the government’s new planning policies of being “Left-wingers based within the national headquarters of pressure groups… going out of their way by picking a fight with Government”.

Given the access the supermarkets, house builders, developers and their representatives have to ministers like Neill, and the sustained, well-resourced lobbying they have been engaged in to push the reforms through, it’s hardly a fair fight.