Energy Bill

I take the hon. Gentleman's point, although I am not sure that putting a middle man in the energy market will necessarily make things better. I merely make the point that we should be considering what can realistically be done. I do not often say this, but I agree with the Minister's approach on this issue. New clause 8 gives a permissive power for the meters to be installed; importantly, subsection (3) gives the power for the technical specifications of meters to be included. That was the point that I made in my earlier intervention—it is vital that, as the hon. Member for Southampton, Test (Dr. Whitehead) said, the meters should be interoperative and that different companies do not run different meters that cannot easily switch. I notice that all the energy companies support smart meters. I have been to many demonstrations of smart meters and seen many press releases and other papers from the energy companies demanding that the Government show leadership on the issue. I understand that there has to be a national roll-out, but the cynical part of me wonders whether the energy companies are seeking to pin the blame on someone else for the associated increased costs. We should be careful about that: smart meters should be a way of helping people, not of raising costs and pinning the blame on politicians for rising energy costs. There is a danger that that could happen. Having said that, I support smart meters and their roll-out. There is a difference between electricity and gas smart meters. I understand that it is much easier to have an electricity smart meter than a gas one, and I wonder whether we should concentrate on electricity in the first roll-out to get the policy moving and show that the system works. The issue is important because of the many things that smart meters can do. Energywatch gave a briefing for this debate that called for a swift roll-out of smart meters. It made the point that such meters would mean that"““suppliers no longer have any excuses for charging the 5.8 million prepayment meter…customers more for their energy than consumers paying by other methods.””" The briefing notes that"““PPM customers are paying on average £215 a year more than customers who can access cheaper online tariffs and, in the most extreme case some consumers could find themselves paying as much as £452 extra each year.””" Such a sum is very substantial to someone in fuel poverty. Energywatch also says that"““In the last year alone more than 63 per cent. of the total PPMs installed were put in by companies to recover energy debt…At present 1,000 PPMs are being installed every day to recover a debt, meaning consumers are repaying debt at the highest rates.””" Anything that smart meters can do to deal with that problem would be very welcome. Smart meters would also mean an end to estimated billing. That is interesting; sometimes, I wonder why the energy companies are so keen on that. I pay for my energy by direct debit, and the company comes along every year and says that for the next year, my payments will be x or y. Obviously, I am out most of the day and there are a lot of estimated readings. We phone the companies or go online to tell them the correct reading; in my experience, whether they take note of that or not is another matter. None the less, the companies come along every year and try to up the direct debits, despite the fact that in my experience people are mostly in credit at the end of the year. That comes back to the need for consumers to show great care in looking at their energy bills and what the energy companies are doing. Basically, there is a lot of overcharging by various means on the part of the energy companies. I would love a smart meter to deal with all those problems and ensure that we pay only for the energy that we use, and at the cheapest possible tariff. However, I have to be realistic. I understand that the roll-out will take time. It is more important that we get the issue right than get it quickly, although we should get it as quickly as possible. Interoperability is the one thing that we must ensure is present when we roll out the system.