As the PM in waiting readies himself to deal with the pressures of leadership, the economy and England’s loss at the World cup, he will not be short of proposals from various ‘think tanks’, from the same to the, well, not so sane.

One issue does keep coming up though, and that’s energy. From proposals to ‘means test’ energy, to differential rates for different incomes, the one that might gain most traction comes from, amongst others, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

It is, as the Foundation implicitly notes, a vote loser right now, feeding into even more disillusionment with the Government, with confidence in Government to fix the energy bills problem is low, with 73 per cent of respondents in the More in Common polling saying they did not believe the Government has a clear and effective plan to bring down energy bills.

The concept is that all households would get a ‘block’ of cheaper energy, whilst any use above it would incur ‘normal’ costs. Leaving aside the problems of assessing household size, who lives where when, true income, insulation, renewable systems installed, batteries and all that jazz for a minute, the idea of course relies of, yes you guessed it, yet more tax.

The report is the usual bingo word salad of tax changes that even the OECD believe will result in low growth. And, strangely (or not), it steers clear of the green levies, which may be necessary, but are a fairy large pachyderm in the room when discussing costs. It also stays clear of detailed reasons as to why many other countries, and their privatised systems, provide cheaper electricity.

Still, the incoming PM will surely take all that into account, and be pragmatic rather than pious?

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