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Energy Bill

During recent months, while recognising that we operate within a free market, I have been trying to devise a tariff system to incentivise conservation in the price structures of the utilities. It is obvious that there is not a lot of information available to help one fully understand the profile of consumption in individual households in the United Kingdom. This morning, as a part of that work and not particularly on this amendment, I talked to British Gas, which has had a dual supply system, to work out what information it held on the profile when it does the annual consumption calculator assessment of the number of units of gas or electricity each household might need. I tried to find out what estimates it makes, but its information is very general. We discussed one, two, three and four-bedroomed houses, because, ultimately, this discussion is about house sizes and footages, and the amount of energy calculated to be required in each household. I support this amendment because it might give the Government the opportunity to acquire from the utilities information to help those involved in energy conservation to draw up new rules and new measures which would help in that general programme.