That is why we are so determined to give power away and encourage communities to take much greater control over their futures. That is why we are reforming public services to open them up to new providers and bring them closer to the people who use them. That’s why we want to encourage and support those people and groups who want to contribute more to making society stronger.

Yes, I accept that in one way that is harder when you have to find financial savings on the scale we have to. I am afraid that the voluntary sector, which annually receives almost £13 billion of taxpayers’ money, cannot be immune from that tough process. At the Office for Civil Society we are working very hard to help the sector manage its way through a painful change, not least with a £100m Transition Fund. However the Big Society agenda is about much more than public funding of charities or ‘just’ volunteering.

This Government has three major roles. First we want to transfer real power to communities. The Localism Bill going through Parliament now will do just that.

Second we want to open up our public services and give greater power to both users and front-line professionals. A White Paper on Public service reform next month will set our plans in more detail. They include encouraging public sector workers to form social enterprises and mutuals. As I have seen with my own eyes in Leicester, the effect can be transformational. Through piloting Community Budgets and Local Integrated services we are encouraging public agencies to break down the silos and focus on real need and better solutions.

Third we want to make it much easier and compelling for people to contribute both time and money to help others. My own department has recently published a Green Paper on Giving which takes a fresh look at how we encourage more giving at a time when money is tight and many people feel time-poor. We are running National Citizen pilots which this year will help 10,000 16 year olds to connect with their own power to make a contribution to their community. In partnership with the largest banks, who are putting up £200m, we are on the brink of delivering the Big Society Bank which will make it easier for social entrepreneurs to access capital.

In this task to strengthen society, we are building on the work of millions of people across the country who are doing amazing things to try and improve lives in their communities. This is the start of a long journey to achieve the kind of culture change we want for Britain; one in which we all feel better connected; part of something bigger and with the power to make a difference to what we care about.

Of the total food wasted each year, around 60% could have been eaten had it been managed better. This avoidable food waste costs the UK £10.2 billion each year, which amounts to £420 per household.

With an increasing need for landfill sites, greater pressure to build incinerators, and a growing national waste bill, it is time to address this inexcusable throw-away culture we have created. Factoring in rising food bills and the need to reduce emissions, we must do all we can to cut down on the amount of food we waste.

In addition to managing our food better, only buying and cooking what we need, we should be aiming to compost the remaining food waste either at home or through council food disposal programmes such as the one run by Bristol City Council which keeps food waste separate from other household rubbish so that it can be composted.

The majority of us each throw away approximately 70kg of food per year – the weight of an average person. The amount of money we spend on this avoidable food waste (from growing it to processing, packaging, transporting, and storing it) is shocking.

We need to recognise that waste is a valuable resource. As we stated in the Quality of Life report, Britain should aspire to become a Zero Waste Economy. A focus on what we do with our food would be a good start.

They have nothing to say to the millions of Londoners who are fed up with the impact of Heathrow on their quality of life .They have nothing to say to those who cannot understand why a Government apparently so concerned about climate change should be so craven in accommodating the aviation lobby.

Their position stands and falls on the flimsiest of business cases. And now that is crumbling. This weekend Bob Ayling, ex-CEO of British Airways, came out of the woodwork to tell us that expansion of Heathrow was not in the national interest because the so-called ‘hub and spoke’ model is flawed and does not generate a national economic benefit. This must be right. How do we benefit from more people waiting for connecting flights at the airport?

As their credibility crumbles, the Government must think again. In my experience, people want a better Heathrow not a bigger one.

David anticipated the call for substance and set up the Quality of Life policy commission to recommend a path that balanced our need to grow with the need to protect our environment.

Our report can be accessed on www.qualityoflifechallenge.com Geoffrey Lean in the Independent on Sunday described it as “an extraordinarily sensible; thoughtful and detailed document”.  It calls for us to be much smarter about how we use the energy and natural resources on which we depend. This message is rooted in a core conservative dislike of waste.  The imperative of climate change demands it. Rising concerns about energy prices and security make it a no-brainer.  We are not calling for pain and sacrifice because we won’t take people with us with that message.   Instead we want to help people make more environmentally responsible choices. We recommend big tax breaks to persuade people to buy the greenest car in the class that is right for them.  We suggest cuts in stamp duty and council tax to encourage homeowners to reduce emissions from their homes and cut their energy bills at the same time. We argue that air passenger duty should be a tax on the plane and not the passenger because we want to incentivise airlines to buy more efficient planes and fill them. We want to see more investment in the railways so that people have a more attractive alternative to flying. Funding this agenda is made possible by winning the argument for raising the price of polluting behaviour.  Britain‘s new status as an importer of oil and gas in an age of dwindling reserves concentrated in very few hands that we can trust.

The case for change is reinforced by 

Business as usual is not a sustainable option. Our future security and prosperity depend on tapping human ingenuity to rethink our use of energy and natural resources in a world that will have to accommodate 9.2 billion people by 2050The evidence tells us that we have reached a critical stage in terms of the need to turn rhetoric on environmental crisis into effective action.

As Conservatives we recognise that we must be honest about the problem and work with the grain of human nature to find the solution. People are unlikely to change their habits unless we make it clear that is easy; normal and in their interest.