I thank the Minister for that comment, which indicates that the Government recognise the value to the fuel-poor of being on mains gas.

I would like to refer briefly to a concern about LPG supply that I raised with the Minister during Energy and Climate Change questions. Following my predecessor's work on competitiveness in the LPG industry and pressure I put on the Office of Fair Trading, it conducted an investigation into the competitiveness of the LPG market and found several practices that made it difficult for families to change their supplier because of the need to change the bulk tank and other fittings associated with the supply. Regulations have now been brought in that ensure that customers can now shop around between suppliers and get much better deals.

The community in another village in my constituency, Llanspyddid, were able to get together and reduce their energy costs substantially by getting competitive quotes from different companies. My concern is that that is available to those in the know. One thing that the Department of Energy and Climate Change could do is publicise the fact that people can shop around for their LPG supply. I do not think that the companies are proactively competing against one other by advertising better prices, and certainly any improvement arises only when the customers are proactive. Any raising of awareness or advertising of the possibility of changing supplier will make a real difference to people on LPG supplies.

My right hon. Friend the Member for Gordon and my hon. Friend the Member for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey both referred to cold weather payments, and we certainly all have our stories about those. The weather station that serves the Ystradgynlais area is situated in Swansea, which makes it sound as though it is by the seashore. Certain parts of the Swansea valley area are by the sea, but parts of it are back up in the mountains in mid-Wales-Coelbren, for example, is about 1,500 feet above sea level and is very exposed. Cold weather payments are not triggered for those living there because the weather in Swansea is more benign and tropical.

We have been campaigning to have the weather station moved to Sennybridge, which is often on the weather map as the coldest place in the UK. That would be much more beneficial in our area. I was talking to a Gurkha the other day who said he had trained in the Arctic, which was cold but dry, in the jungle, which was wet but warm, and in Sennybridge, which was cold and wet, so he needed a high degree of personal organisation to survive there. I recommend it as the site for the weather station that should be consulted in those matters.

I will finish my remarks by referring to social tariffs and the ability to switch between suppliers. I remember participating in a debate in this Chamber on a similar topic, during which we discussed the ability to switch supplier. Of the several Members present in that debate-more than are present today-my hon. Friend Dr. Cable and I were the only ones who had not switched, and we concluded that it was an age thing, as we were brought up in a time when we received energy supplied by a nationalised company and did not shop around among other companies. It would be interesting to know which people do and do not switch by age band, and which of those people have access to IT equipment, which makes switching much easier. I am sure that we have all heard horror stories from constituents who have attempted to switch and then found that they were billed by two companies at the same time. All those deterrents make people cautious about whether they would benefit from switching.

Social tariffs are very complex. I looked recently at a few quotations from companies, and they have different standing charges and different prices for the first 100 units and for the rest of the units, so it is difficult to put those details together and know whether a particular tariff would benefit the consumer. If there were some standardisation of the quotes for tariffs, that would make the process much easier, and people would be able to switch with much more confidence and receive greater benefit.

On social tariffs, and further to the point made by Bob Spink, who is no longer in his place, I have figures for an average household consumption of 4,200 kW of electricity per year. Paying by standard credit, that would cost £977; by direct debit, £902; but by prepayment, £1,049. The people who use prepayment tend to be the most vulnerable: they have more difficulty budgeting for their fuel costs, yet are penalised the most.

The sharing of data between the Department for Work and Pensions and the electricity companies on those who should qualify for social tariffs would be beneficial. There has been some talk of smart meters, and I am advised that there are super-smart meters that automatically change the supply to the most advantageous supplier for the customer's circumstances.

This is a subject that we all have experience of in our own lives, but our most vulnerable constituents have the most difficult experiences. I have read the Government's proposals for green loans, as well as the Conservatives' proposals. They have many good ideas, but we need to implement them and prioritise them, so that the most vulnerable and needy in our communities-the ones who suffer from ill health and are at risk of premature death-get the greatest help.