Speeches by Kirkham.

“Can I carry on with the last couple of questions, Chair?”

“I have quite a lot of questions about water. There is a lot of pollution in our inland water, as well as our coastal areas, but it is from different things. It is partly from sewage, but also from agriculture, industry and landfills. What steps are you taking to tackle all of that different pollution?”

“So it is a case of “fix it and they will invest”?”

“Thank you, Chair, and good afternoon, Secretary of State. I have just a couple of questions, going back to ownership, initially. The Treasury claims data is based on some numbers that were quite interesting: 27% of those claims assets were under £250,000 and 23% were under £0.5 million, which seems quite low. What anal…”

“Have you had expressions of interest from investors to doing that?”

“I do not suppose we know much of a breakdown of who is applying for those payments. Is it the small farmers or the large farmers? What will be the impact on family farms of the changes with basic payments?”

“It is quite important to look at that impact going forward.”

“We are talking in the next session about the advisory services that help farmers to do that, because that is really important.”

“The current ELMs system is quite pick and mix—farmers can choose what they apply for. Are you thinking of moving towards a system that may have more of a balance, so that when we have that land management system, we know what we are aiming at and we can assist farmers with knowing where they should put that investment?”

“So that money does not all end up in things like biodiversity banks, for example.”

“I get the water sector part, because Cornwall is surrounded by water on three sides. The Government have announced a major review of the water sector, and the first thing to look at will be the scope. How wide is it? Would the review consider alternative models of water company ownership and maybe complete reform of th…”

“Ofwat is looking at a price review for the water sector. Obviously, we know that, over the previous years, a lot of money has been taken out of that sector with not much investment. To what extent should consumers now have to shoulder and take on the up-front capital costs, which will be large, to tackle water pollutio…”

“Sorry, I have loads more.”

“I am pleased about the support for first and second-tier councils and the commitment to fair funding, which will make a real difference in, for instance, Cornwall. However, in unitary authorities such as ours, where a great many services have been shared, larger town councils have had to step up and take the strain, bu…”

“We had a very successful all-party group meeting last week on floating offshore wind in the Celtic sea. I know the Minister is supportive and ask him to consider mechanisms such as ringfencing contracts for difference and investment in ports to kickstart the investment in the Celtic sea.”

“I will not rehearse the numbers that Members have already given for the south-west, except to say that fewer than half the children in Cornwall have been seen by an NHS dentist in the past 12 months. That is down 13 percentage points from five years earlier. It is just getting worse and worse: people simply cannot get …”

“In my constituency of Truro and Falmouth, housing is a major issue, as it is in many rural communities. Does my hon. Friend agree that we must take action on housing? We should, in particular, consider the impact of second homes in our rural communities.”

“Will the hon. Gentleman give way?”

“Finally, after 14 years of patching up, we have a Budget that puts down the first bricks as we start to rebuild our country. With this Budget we will be able to start to put the NHS back on its feet with a £25 billion boost, provide a shot in the arm for our schools with extra funding including £1 billion for SEND, and…”

“I welcome the commitment in the Budget to our courts after 14 years of neglect. Truro Crown court is facing a temporary cut to Crown court sitting days until the end of the year. I have previously asked about delayed rape and sexual offences cases at Truro Crown court. Can measures be considered to assist?”