Should the government move green levies off business electricity bills to cut costs?

This was less a debate than a rout, with three in four backing the CBI and Energy UK's case that industrial electricity prices — already a third above the G7 median — are throttling growth, and that levies designed to fund the green transition are better raised elsewhere. The 55-64s, at the sharp end of pensions and business ownership, voted almost as one for relief; women on the platform were unanimous.

The exception is the story within the story: the 45-54 bracket, prime working-age taxpayers with the most to lose if the levies simply migrate onto general taxation or household bills, split down the middle and tilted against. It suggests the enthusiasm for cutting business costs cools sharply among those who suspect they'll be asked to foot the difference.

The result echoes a familiar fault line in the net zero debate — who pays for decarbonisation, business or consumer, now or later — and shows a self-selected chamber leaning firmly towards easing the load on industry, even as one middle-aged cohort quietly asked where the bill lands next.