THE current government promised localism, but the reality is more power is now in the hands of the Secretary of State, Eric Pickles.

This is particularly true of planning appeals.

The deluge of speculative housing applications in Cheshire East is already causing problems for schools and other infrastructure.

Conservative and Labour agree as a nation we need more houses.

The difference is in how to meet that need.

Conservative policy is to encourage private industry to build more houses and to allow developers a great deal of flexibility in choosing the sites.

The sites the developers choose are those which make the most money for private developers.

Labour would give more power to councils and insist all councils had a Local Plan.

Their policy would not reduce the number of houses being built, but it would change the locations chosen.

It would also change the style of houses being built and it would enable the council to plan and fund the infrastructure necessary to support the new houses, including schools and road improvements.

The clear party political choice is whether you want local government or private enterprise to determine when, where and what sort of houses are built.

Sam Corcoran Sandbach