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Energy Bill

I assume that if there are net costs, as I believe there will be, they will be passed on to the consumer. It may not be public spending, but at a time of rising energy costs we must have regard to that. I am supporter of smart meters and I predict that they will be rolled out for householders, but we need to refine the costs and see what the difference is between ourselves and industry on those cost estimates. Many of the advantages are, in a sense, hypotheses. We hope behaviour will follow those, but we must ground it in some estimate of net costs.