Speeches by Bool.

“10. What estimate she has made of the number of 16 to 24-year-olds receiving universal credit.”

“According to the Library, in my constituency, the claimant count among those aged 16 to 24 has risen by 46%; that is one of the largest percentage increases in the country. Conservative Members know that the Government have a moral duty not to let our young people learn that a life of benefits is the life for them, so …”

“T3. One of the main benefits of saving into a private pension is the tax relief that people get from the Government, which is one of the smartest ways to save for later life. Any move by this Government to cut pension tax relief will devastate savings rates and the adequacy of pension provisions. I would hope that the …”

“Is that because they were not allowed to due to the exclusivity?”

“Just to understand, you say it does not have operational capacity in water, but CKI owns 75% of Northumbrian Water. What do you mean by that compared to the creditors?”

“Where did those mainly fail? Which of those issues were the problem because I am sure the regulators might have been on side. I understand the future investment. Where was the weakness on the others? If KKR could, why could others not?”

“I appreciate that because I completely understand that need for exclusivity and that that is what KKR would want. They want that 10-week period; it is quite common in legal transactions. I have seen that before. What I do not quite understand is once that period ended, why did you not just reopen it and give the other …”

“I just wanted to clarify some timings because when Charlie asked earlier on, you said that KKR submitted its bid to Ofwat on 30 May, but you also said that you were aware of KKR potentially drawing out on 29 May, and then not getting the financing. Can you clarify that?”

“But either way, you were aware of KKR pulling out, but simultaneously, it put a bid in, we think.”

“Okay. Just very quickly on that point: obviously as part of the due diligence, KKR would have been asking Thames Water a lot of questions to seek that comfort. Clearly, you could not give KKR the comfort to be able to get that financial investment sign-off. Obviously I understand about the banks. Chris, I know you said…”

“I have a very quick question. I understand your explanation about the penalties and the doom loop, but did the KKR bid include paying those penalties and have the creditors built in paying these penalties as part of their bid?”

“I will leave it there because I will come back to that a bit later.”

“But the creditors were also operating and preparing their own bid alongside KKR. Equally, to have the information that KKR needed, it would have had to speak to the creditors to get the confirmation. So it is like marking its own homework for a bid that then comes out.”

“But the creditors are actually given that information because of the loan structure and funding. There could be questions raised about the comfort that KKR could not get because the creditors ultimately wanted the bid.”

“It was not paid for—”

“I find this very difficult because it is incredibly serious to get to this stage after 10 weeks—”

“It almost does not feel like there is an open competition. I appreciate that the creditors have always been waiting in the wings; they have been working basically in parallel with KKR. On the other hand, Sir Adrian, you said that the creditors have contractual control over the company at the moment. I still do not thin…”

“I am just trying to understand this. In terms of when KKR shared that information, on what basis or grounds did it share it? Because obviously it has incurred a huge financial cost.”

“You said about the due diligence reports and so on.”

“—and then not be able to get your finances over the board. That is very unusual in this day and age.”