尼尔斯·普拉特利认为，能源大臣米娅·范布勒应当“保持简单”，制定一项有针对性的社会电价，以保护弱势家庭免受飙升的能源账单冲击（《英国能源大臣正在与一个糟糕的账单主意调情——“阶梯递增电价”，10月14日）。遗憾的是，这种方案并没有什么简单之处。
Nils Pratley thinks that the secretary of state, Miatta Fahnbulleh, should "keep things simple" and develop a targeted social tariff to protect vulnerable households from surging energy bills ( The UK energy secretary is flirting with a bad idea for bills – the 'rising block tariff, 14 October ). Unfortunately, there is nothing simple about such a scheme.
普拉特利的提议意味着要在我们私有化的能源行业内部建立一套新的福利体系。如果关于我们现行福利体系的没完没了的辩论还不足以让他打消念头，我们可以看看正在失效的社会照护体系，以此窥见它可能导向何方。安迪·伯纳姆毕生致力于拆解这一“彩票制度”，该制度能让养老金领取者的积蓄和家庭住房化为乌有。正如他现在计划建立全民公共成人社会照护一样，我们新经济基金会也为能源制定了这样一项方案。
Pratley's proposal would mean creating a new benefits system inside our privatised energy industry. If the interminable debates about our current benefits system were not enough to put him off, we can look to the failing social care system to see where it might lead. Andy Burnham has made it his life's mission to dismantle this lottery that can strip pensioners of their savings and the family home. Just as he now plans a universal public provision of adult social care, we at the New Economics Foundation have such a plan for energy.
每个家庭都应当负担得起能源基本需求：足以熬过冬天的暖气；足以开灯和运行冰箱的电力。我们应当将此视为一项普遍权利，而不是浪费时间去摆弄一个靶向系统，让它武断地将“值得帮助者”与“不值得帮助者”分开（决议基金会提案的“粗糙公正”便是个例证，它根据家庭最高收入者的收入来惩罚家庭）。
Every household should be able to afford the energy essentials: enough warmth to survive a winter; enough electricity to switch on the lights and run a fridge. We should recognise this as a universal right rather than waste time tinkering with a targeting system that arbitrarily separates the "worthy" from the "unworthy" (the "rough justice" of the Resolution Foundation's proposal which penalises households based on the income of the highest earner, is a case in point).
长期的普遍供给设计尚可商榷。但随着另一场能源危机逼近，我们应当保持简单：让财政部为基本用量的电力和天然气提供真正的价格上限资助。这将是一项人人受益的政策（特别是如果允许电采暖家庭将其燃气额度转移使用）。
The long-term design of a universal offer can be debated. But as another energy crisis bears down on us, we should keep it simple: have the Treasury fund a true price cap on an essential block of electricity and gas. This would be a policy from which everyone wins (especially if electrically heated homes are allowed to transfer across their gas allowance).
从长远来看，帮助支付这笔费用的一种方式可能是向能源消耗极高的家庭收取更多费用。但还有其他办法。澳大利亚的“太阳能共享”计划让每个家庭在白天中午时段享受三小时免费用电，让人对可再生能源很快能带来真正的能源安全充满希望。新经济基金会经济与环境政策主管 亚历克斯·查普曼博士
In the longer term, one way to help pay for this could be to charge households with very high energy consumption more. But there are other ways. The Australian " solar sharer " scheme gives every household three hours of free electricity in the middle of the day, bringing hope that renewables could soon give true energy security. Dr Alex Chapman Head of economic and environmental policy, New Economics Foundation