Speeches by Roca.

“I guess there would be a worry that the farmers that you are suggesting need to make the greatest productivity improvements are also the farmers with some of the lowest incomes in the country, which is very concerning. You mentioned the farming resilience fund, which has been broadly welcomed by farmers as a positive p…”

“That leads me on to naturally ask, were there sectors or areas in particular where there was a bigger challenge around productivity improvement?”

“Just to build on these points, we had a good conversation in January with you, Emily, but one quote stuck in a lot of the Committee’s minds at that time. We had a discussion about viability, and of course there are huge amounts of tension around food security, productivity and the environment. Emily, you said, “I do no…”

“Before we move on, in January we had conversations about the capital grants scheme, which had similar circumstances in November to what happened to SFI, and we were told that lessons would be learned. The Committee wants to understand from you that we can be confident that lessons will be learned now from two instances…”

“To pick up on Sarah’s point, the intention of the Government in the spending review, or certainly your hope in DEFRA, is to continue with SFI in the future.”

“I have heard that the impact of an outbreak could run into tens of billions. My instant reaction is, are we doing absolutely everything we can to make sure we are prepared?”

“That is really helpful in getting a sense of the impact of the closure of the scheme. The Chair has mentioned issues around farmer confidence and the NFU surveys, cash flow and other matters. Has the Government given any consideration to an interim scheme? I know there have been organisations pushing for some sort of i…”

“Sorry, I have a certain nervousness about a foot and mouth outbreak.”

“Nicola, are you alive, and are the board alive, to the concerns that the public have in this area? Fitch downgraded you in January. You were the second worst company for pollution in 2023, you were in the elevated concern category of Ofwat, and yet you have received an additional £371,000, taking your pay to £1,028,000…”

“These are large sums of money in terms of remuneration, which the public will obviously be concerned about. Ofwat criticised your policies for the performance-related pay and suggested they do not match expected company performance. Do you share that assessment?”

“Absolutely, because this is about rebuilding confidence.”

“I will address it to you, Paul, in the first instance. Yorkshire Water’s return on equity has been 6.2%, significantly above Ofwat’s recommended 4% level. The shareholder return has been about 10% on average, despite the penalties and fines for the underperformance that we have certainly heard of today. Why do you main…”

“Talking about bill payers, the University of Greenwich suggests that a third of the average bill for a customer—about £442—is going away from frontline services and into debt or dividend payments. Do you recognise that figure?”

“Linking to borrowing, obviously we have talked about gearing before. BBC analysis suggests that you have paid £2 billion in interest on debt and loans over the last seven years and that the total debt pile has increased from £4.8 billion to £6.2 billion, while only £1.2 billion has been spent on enhancement capital exp…”

“The level of debt within the sector overall is quite a sensitive issue to the public. I do not know if you have a comment on it because, overall since privatisation, something like £70 billion has been taken out in dividends but £60 billion of debt has been created as well.”

“Nicola, can I turn to you to talk about executive pay, which is obviously very much in the media? It is a monopoly business; you have captive customers, so it is controversial. Last year, your base salary was £585,000. Is that right?”

“There were taxable benefits of £13,000 and retirement benefits of £59,000, which you took in cash?”

“Ofwat said, “The company’s proposed policy for executive pay does not meet minimum expectations.” As the CEO, I would hope you would be reflecting back to the committee how important it is that we rebuild that confidence.”

“Then in January, customers are facing, I think, a 28% increase in bills over the next period but there was a similar announcement of an increase in dividend again. Does that seem fair to you?”

“Ofwat said, “The company’s proposed policy for executive pay does not meet minimum expectations.” As the CEO, I would hope you would be reflecting back to the committee how important it is that we rebuild that confidence.”