Member

I put down a marker that I realise that, in the scheme of things, £1.50 is not large but, when it is added to what we are already paying, as highlighted by Nesta, the sum is quite large. Would it not be better to put it into general taxation? The simple reason and the long-standing argument that I have had in Grand Committee, more than anywhere else in the House, is that our standing charge is that part of the energy bill that we cannot control. The usage shown on the meter is something that we can control, but an increasingly higher proportion of all of our bills is the standing charge—the one area of the bill that we cannot control. I leave the Minister with that thought: it might be more responsible to do this in another way than by clobbering the consumer.