I thank the Minister for that. However, the point I am making is that you can fulfil building regulations by doing something far away; whereas, on a planning permission, there is a specific agreement to do specific things. On the carbon price, going to £90 is one figure. I was trying to make such allowable solutions the last resort and ensure that other solutions—either for the building itself or locally—came first. On electricity charging points for cars, I thank the Minister for his potentially positive reaction; that is excellent.
Clearly, I will not press my amendment. The risk about price of housing and standards is clear if we look at the automotive industry. It has constantly had regulations on carbon emissions, and there has always been a fight, fight, fight by the automotive industry against all of them. Finally, politicians—at this point, in the single market at the European level—have had the guts to say, “Right, we have had enough of negotiation; we are going to ensure that”. That has happened a number of times on emissions. Has the real price of cars ever gone up over that period? The answer is absolutely not.
The same is true in the area of renewable energy. The cost is constantly coming down. The issue is not the increased price of houses—it may be in the very short term, but I suspect that that may be reflected in the land value rather than the price of the house, because that is the big variable in value and how
planning permission works. Before I withdraw my amendment, I sincerely ask the Government not to be completely taken by the argument that the whole of the private industry is centred on efficiency increases and reducing costs. It is completely able to do that; this is not the biggest cost factor; and it is much more important that the future stream of energy costs to the people who live inside—the voters, consumers and citizens—are taken equally into consideration. I think that they should be weighed much higher in the balance. I beg leave to withdraw my amendment.