So will regional energy prices really spark a backlash like the poll tax riots?

Er, no. Not even Ed Miliband is daft enough to raise electricity prices in the south to cut them in the north, says John Rentoul

Energy secretary Ed Miliband has been quick to try to persuade the mob to put away its pitchforks.

It had been reported that he was considering a plan to vary electricity prices by region – so that bills would be lower in Scotland and northern England, close to wind farms, and higher in the south, where wind-generated electricity is more expensive to deliver.

Cue outrage – and a prompt retreat.

“What I do not want to do is jack up bills in one part of the country in favour of another,” Miliband said. “I’m not going to take a decision that is going to raise prices in some parts of the country. That is not what I’m going to do.”

So it turns out that “will zonal pricing provoke the equivalent of the poll tax riots?” is a classic Question To Which The Answer Is No.

But he hasn’t completely ruled out making southern bill-payers extremely grumpy by cutting bills for northerners. He said: “My test for any reform is: will it cut bills and will it do it across the country in a fair way?” He said he was “not in favour of a postcode lottery on bills”, but did not quite rule out cutting bills across whole regions if this could be presented as “fair”.

There are, inevitably, different views on what is “fair”. Is it fair that northerners should, in effect, subsidise the bills of southerners? Would lower bills in wind-rich parts of the country not be an extension of the principle – which seems to be popular – of offering a discount to local people if they agree to the building of turbines near their homes?

On the other hand, there is a strong presumption in favour of uniform national charging for anything resembling a public service. While people may not take to the streets if their bills stay the same while those of residents of other regions are cut, if southerners know that their bills are higher than those of some of their fellow citizens, they are not going to like it. Any party implementing such a policy can expect to pay a penalty in votes in all those seats across southern England that Labour won last year.

Miliband also said on Thursday morning: “People are speculating that we’ve made a decision. We haven’t made a decision, but we’re carefully assessing this.”

I am speculating that when he makes a decision, it will be to keep prices the same nationally. The only exception will be local bribes for people living near the sites of new turbines or solar farms.

Miliband has become the target of the Conservative press, and is acutely aware that he cannot allow his green policies to be blamed for adding to the cost of living. Current high gas and electricity prices reflect higher world gas prices, which allows him to repeat the line that more wind and solar power will free Britain from dependence on world fossil-fuel markets. That distracts attention from the green levies on bills, which are still there, although he hasn’t increased them.

The one thing he will not want to do is to draw attention to the cost of renewables by cutting bills for some people and not for others. Once he has “carefully assessed” the plan for regional energy pricing, I predict he will not do it.