Can I welcome the Government's statement? We have had a catastrophic Westminster Government financial statement. Inflation and interest rates are increasing, but the pound is collapsing. The Bank of England's interest rate still remains at a historically low level, although I probably won't say that in a month's time. Unfortunately, house prices have increased based upon the expectation of a continuation of low interest rates. We have commodity-driven inflation. Increasing interest rates will not reduce commodity prices, which are traded on world markets, but will cause financial hardship. Prices, which are mainly set in dollars, are increasing due to—I was going to say 'the reduction', but I will say 'the collapse'—the collapse in the value of the pound. The pound has gone down from $1.50 to $1.08 against the dollar since we voted to leave Europe. Now, whatever you say about whether it was right or wrong to leave Europe, we certainly have paid a price in terms of the value of the currency. The Office for Budget Responsibility has said that 2022-23 will see the biggest fall in living standards in the UK since records began.

Can I just raise one issue, which I raised last week and I will keep on raising: the problem of energy standing charges, which affect the poorest hardest? Will the Minister take this up with the Westminster Government? Nothing is, to me, sadder than people who have scraped or borrowed to buy energy tokens to see them partly used up by standing charges for days they were unable to afford to use any energy, but they're still paying those standing charges. This affects the poorest in society, and can I urge the Minister to raise this with Westminster? It doesn't need to cost anything in terms of total income, but it would certainly benefit some of the poorest in society.