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AMENDMENT OF THE LAW

More can be done to incentivise people to conserve energy in their homes. If a small percentage of the money that goes towards subsidising wind turbines went straight into more grants to enable people to insulate homes and be more environmentally friendly, and perhaps give them all those wonderful energy-saving light bulbs, even though they cost a little more, we could conserve more energy than we need to create with those dreadful wind turbines. As the hon. Member for Burnley (Kitty Ussher) knows my patch well, she will know that Ribble Valley’s council tax is going up by 5.1 per cent. this year. We do not know what to believe about inflation these days, as we have heard so many statistics, but I suspect that it is nearer to 5 per cent. than anything else. I heard the hon. Member for Dundee, East (Stewart Hosie) say that for some people, depending on what they buy, it is a lot higher, and could be nearer to 9 per cent. The increase for Lancashire county council—the hon. Member for Burnley will also have that element in her council tax—is 4.95 per cent. At the same time, just to save money, the Government have cut back on rural buses, which goes against everything that I thought they were trying to achieve environmentally. Twenty-nine of our services are being chopped, which means that many people in rural areas will have no choice but to get into their cars and drive. For many of them it is not a reduction in the service—that happened a long time ago—but an abolition of the service. People are paying more in their council tax, yet having a poorer service as well. Moreover, the Lancashire police authority precept has gone up by 11.4 per cent. I would like to know exactly how every penny of that is being accounted for, because it is at least three times the rate of inflation. The Chancellor altered stamp duty for carbon-free homes, but only until 2012. I do not know why he set that limit, because if it is such a good idea for all homes to be carbon-neutral, perhaps no sunset date should be put on it. He has done incredibly well out of stamp duty over the years. The Halifax bank has calculated that if the threshold had risen in line with inflation, the £250,000 threshold would now be nearer to £680,000 and the £500,000 threshold would be about £1,360,000. I hope that the Chancellor will reconsider that issue. There is currently a campaign by nurses about pay. Doctors have done very well out of the Government, but is it not about time the nurses got their fair share for the work that they do? A 1.9 per cent. pay increase is simply insufficient when inflation is running at 5 per cent. One nurse wrote to me to say that she is losing about £570 because the pay increase is so low compared with all the other increases taking place.