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'£1bn subsidy'

The cost of making access to Justice available to a country's citizens isn't a 'subsidy'. No more than providing the army, police, fire service, healthcare or roads is.
We're not talking about payments to lawyers here - this is about providing the buildings, court staff and judges so that citizens can settle their disputes fairly - something which any civilisation since ancient Greece has seen it as a duty to provide.

By the way if you are retired and still pay tax them you obviously have a private or company pension - private pensions alone are subsidised by almost 40bn per year by the Govt. If you're retired and own a house you undoubtedly had the benefit of MIRAS on your mortgage interest for many yeras and, if you went to university, a free tertiary education to boot. These all cost vastly more in real terms than the 1bn you are whining about now...