To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what estimate he has made of the average cost of heating a property with gas boilers over the winter of 2008-09. (260700)

DECC publishes information on the average annual gas bill for households. The latest data, published in “Quarterly Energy Prices”, suggests that customers paying on receipt of bill (standard credit) with standard annual gas consumption of 18,000 kWh paid on average £570 in 2008.

Data on average annual gas bills are available in section 2 of “Quarterly Energy Prices”, the latest edition was published in December 2008 and is available online at:

http://www.berr.gov.uk/files/file49203.pdf