Finance Bill

I am afraid that my hon. Friend has drawn a rather depressing, although wholly accurate, conclusion. In the Committee of the whole House, the hon. Member for Wolverhampton, South-West (Rob Marris) commented on the need to have carrots and sticks for environmental measures to try to change behaviour. We discussed those issues, including this one, at great length. I am pleased that my hon. Friend the Member for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey (Danny Alexander) has developed the argument further since we had the opportunity to raise it in Committee a few weeks ago. In terms of the carrot and the stick, my hon. Friend was trying to make the point that in areas of his constituency—and, for that matter, in areas in my neighbouring constituencies, although I suspect not in mine because it is urban—where there is no alternative to the car, the increase in fuel duty proposed by the Chancellor in the Budget, a measure that the Liberal Democrats welcomed, will not have an impact on people’s behaviour because it is impossible for them to change it, as there is no alternative. On that basis, it is sensible for the Government to consider seriously the idea of taking up the derogation from article 19 of the EU energy products directive, as other countries have done, and recognising the difficulties that people in rural areas face. As my hon. Friend said, those people are facing a triple whammy. They have lower wages than average and no access to public transport, and they pay higher fuel prices at the pump. His solution is not that they should have cheaper fuel, but that they should pay a price comparable with that paid by others. It is important not to underestimate the effect that that triple whammy has not just on those individuals, but on the local economy. If people have to drive elsewhere to get fuel for their car, the chances are that they will spend their money in other places as well. It will undermine their local community and leave people who do not have access to a car with less access to other resources, because—