Speeches by Kirkham.

“Yes. One of the points that was made at the last hearing was that you were the chair of the board for Kemble—”

“Yes, as well as Thames Water, and you stepped down. Why did you step down? There were issues pointed out that there was a conflict there because of the debt, is that why you stepped down?”

“Yes, because Thames Water pays dividends: not to the shareholders, but to Kemble, did it not?”

“Ofwat changed the rules, did it not, about the dividends? So Thames could no longer pay dividends to Kemble, and then it defaulted on that £400 million loan in April 2024. What impact did that then have on Thames?”

“The FT has stated that the current shareholders are now basically divorced from the company: they have no skin in the game or motivation to act to provide any kind of oversight to the board. Do you agree with that and if so, who is controlling the board?”

“At the hearing your General Council accepted that the Class A creditors are basically now the economic owners of the company.”

“So, would you say that they essentially control the company?”

“It is just the FT reported that in the potential sale to KKR, those bondholders may end up with quite a substantial stake.”

“Is that the case?”

“The shadow Chancellor spoke about public sector workers benefiting from this kind of investment. Before I came to the House, I was the chair of the Cornwall local government pension scheme, which very successfully invested 7.5% in local and social impact investments—in local renewables and local affordable housing. Wil…”

“Violence in prisons rose sharply as investment and staffing fell under the previous Government. I spoke to a prison officer who got an award for his bravery in dealing with one of the many incidents at the prison. He took his daughter to receive the award, and afterwards she begged him to stop doing the job. He no long…”

“T7. I must thank the Land Army, too. I am only here because my grandma met my grandad on his farm when she was working in the Land Army. Cornwall has a successful horticultural industry, specialising in cauliflowers, daffodils, potatoes and courgettes. The industry welcomed the extension of the seasonal worker visa sch…”

“Does my hon. Friend agree that transport in rural and semi-rural areas can often be much more expensive than in urban areas, where it is subsidised to a far greater extent?”

“Q4. I start by congratulating Truro City football club, who have gone from homelessness to league champions in one season. In Cornwall, clean energy is a huge opportunity. We are fortunate to have vast natural resources, with onshore and offshore wind, geothermal and tidal. We have a strategically vital port and a work…”

“I sit on the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, and we are also making submissions to the Cunliffe review. I do not believe ownership of water is outside the scope of the review. It will be looking at how our water is owned—maybe not nationalisation, but certainly other methods of ownership.”

“I am grateful to the hon. Member for South Devon (Caroline Voaden) for securing this debate. Since I first wrote on social media asking my constituents whether they had been affected by fleecehold, I have had hundreds of messages, showing how much of a problem this is across the country. The way we build, own and manag…”

“Cornwall is a big rural legal aid desert. We have many volunteers who would be prepared to help and Citizens Advice could act as an umbrella organisation. Will the Minister meet me to discuss how we can get some of that funding for access to legal aid in rural areas into Cornwall?”

“Does the Minister, in contrast with the last speaker, agree that the future of this country is in clean power, safely produced from our own natural resources, such as floating offshore wind in the Celtic sea, and ultimately in our infrastructure being built out of green British steel, not steel imported from China?”

“I wish to add my voice as an MP from Cornwall to say that some of the actions the Government have taken so far on second homes have been really helpful. The Renters’ Rights Bill will help with those evictions when people are flipping their houses. I also ask that we look at the loophole between council tax and business…”

“5. What recent progress the client board has made on consulting hon. Members on the restoration and renewal programme.”