Speeches by Tufnell.

“Do you think—[Interruption.]”

“So repayment sits entirely with the WRU?”

“How is responsibility divided between the WRU and the regions in respect to repayment of covid loans?”

“What about Central Glamorgan Rugby Union?”

“Coming back to the culture point, in terms of evidencing the governance changes that you talked about having made since the independent review, are there more examples that you can provide to the Committee about how you have used that review to embed systemic changes within the WRU?”

“Community clubs have called for an extraordinary general meeting. That indicates that maybe it is not all okay at the community level. Your response is that it is just going to set back improvements following the report that came out that labelled you as sexist, homophobic and misogynist. Is that not quite a strange wa…”

“It sounds as if you are approaching this like a management consultancy might. Have you considered the feeling from the community about the way you have done it? You talk about demographics. Are you aware that you may not have managed to bring your stakeholders with you because of the language and because of the way tha…”

“We have touched on the gap in respect of Defra not having the money it needs or wants in order to deliver on its priorities, and in your review you touched a lot on private finance. Taking a step back, I want to ask you whether it is because of the realities of the public purse that one should be looking at private fin…”

“We have touched on the fact that a lot of what Josh alluded to is the brainchild of Dieter Helm and Michael Gove. You have asked what we want. Do you think you know what the Government and Defra want?”

“Do you have any thoughts on having a national asset funded by the Government, as opposed to owned by an Australian private equity company, for example?”

“What do you think the Government should be doing in the space of private finance to prevent—”

“We have touched on some of the dangers in respect of the Government subsidy, such as rewarding the larger farms in terms of their capability to access that money; you have talked about the difference between the local and the national, with the local farmer perhaps not having access to capital to access those grant sch…”

“This is a fantastic announcement for Mid and South Pembrokeshire, as it enables Wales’s first floating offshore wind farm. How will the Secretary of State work with developers to maximise their use of local supply chains, so that communities such as mine can see the real benefits in jobs and local economic growth?”

“Moving on to future risks, the compliance risk index, or the CRI, is going to be tightened over the next five years. Ofwat said that will have significant challenges for operators. Given that six companies that have failed to meet their target every year since 2020, Ofwat’s fear may be warranted. You also have issues a…”

“You also talked about transparency in your opening remarks. Are you concerned that there could be reduced transparency because it all gets done in-house, rather than having a potentially more public discussion between regulators?”

“First, the drinking quality of the water in England is very high. Being subsumed into a new regulator, there could be a fear that that focus gets lost to one that is consumed with bills and pollution. Is that something that you think about?”

“Thank you; that is very helpful. Can I pick up on two things?”

“I will start with the elephant in the room, which is that the Government have said that they are going to abolish the Drinking Water Inspectorate and create a new, integrated water regulator. From your perspective, what challenges or opportunities does this represent for future drinking water regulations?”

“We await your correspondence with interest.”

“After everything we have just heard, the fundamental point for your customers is that there will be a 38% rise in their bills. By 2030, it is going to be about £339 after inflation. In that context, in respect of yours and your company’s performance, the people picking up the tab are your customers. Does that sit well …”