Energy Bill

Well, costs can go up as well as down, as the advertisements say. We are trying to refine the analysis and we need to go further, as all sorts of factors are in play. I said that our current estimates put the costs at between £8 billion and £14 billion, and I have conceded that we need to do more work to refine those figures. That is something that we need to discuss with industry, but our present analysis does not suggest that there is a net positive business case for proceeding. However, the figures are the result of our initial analysis, and are by no means our final word on the subject. Many of the estimated future costs carry a high degree of uncertainty, and some of the anticipated benefits are challenging to quantify in monetary terms.