Speeches by Roca.

“So even after work, even after mitigation, something would remain high risk?”

“Can I say that I am short of time; I have to go bother a Minister about something else in my constituency. My question was that Ofwat says you failed to make a robust case for funding or had already received funding to invest in resilience in previous price reviews. How do you respond to the suggestion that you are not…”

“The Committee recognises the points you make about regulation; Mr Hinton made those points in January as well, and welcomed the IWC’s recommendations. However, I do not think you can completely hide behind the regulatory framework. A core part of your business should be an understanding that in terms of infrastructure,…”

“I feel like we are wading through treacle here. You have not answered my colleague’s original question, which is, what would it take for a change in leadership? You have had an outage that affected tens of thousands of people. Another outage that affected tens of thousands of people. A proposed fine because 286,000 cus…”

“I take that point, and it is an important point. But two of you today have talked about the extra £100 million from the CMA’s redeterminations. Am I right in remembering that, when you asked about this in January, you felt you needed £300 million of investment? Are you satisfied with £100 million, or do you still feel …”

“In fact, you received one of the largest increases in revenue overall, so hopefully customers in the region should be seeing improvements in the future. Can I ask about the issues I mentioned at the beginning? Ofwat found problems with the upkeep of treatment works, trunk mains, boreholes and reservoirs, and said that …”

“Mr Train, lack of interconnectivity, historically low levels of mains replacements and other issues have been flagged as affecting resilience at South East Water. In your view, why was greater resilience not a priority in earlier price reviews?”

“I take that point, and it is an important point. But two of you today have talked about the extra £100 million from the CMA’s redeterminations. Am I right in remembering that, when you asked about this in January, you felt you needed £300 million of investment? Are you satisfied with £100 million, or do you still feel …”

“In fact, you received one of the largest increases in revenue overall, so hopefully customers in the region should be seeing improvements in the future. Can I ask about the issues I mentioned at the beginning? Ofwat found problems with the upkeep of treatment works, trunk mains, boreholes and reservoirs, and said that …”

“Mr Train, lack of interconnectivity, historically low levels of mains replacements and other issues have been flagged as affecting resilience at South East Water. In your view, why was greater resilience not a priority in earlier price reviews?”

“Can I say that I am short of time; I have to go bother a Minister about something else in my constituency. My question was that Ofwat says you failed to make a robust case for funding or had already received funding to invest in resilience in previous price reviews. How do you respond to the suggestion that you are not…”

“So even after work, even after mitigation, something would remain high risk?”

“Ofwat said that for at least 10 years you failed to ensure service reservoirs were adequately and regularly inspected, and that you failed to maintain trunk mains by undertaking sufficient preventative maintenance. It is interesting that since 2017, by your own papers, you have rated the risk of trunk main failure as h…”

“Part of remedying what has happened is people having confidence. Your customers clearly do not have confidence, as has been expressed by the leader of Kent County Council and seven local Members of Parliament, and this Committee has made its concerns very clear. Why is not the confidence of your customers an important …”

“I feel like we are wading through treacle here. You have not answered my colleague’s original question, which is, what would it take for a change in leadership? You have had an outage that affected tens of thousands of people. Another outage that affected tens of thousands of people. A proposed fine because 286,000 cus…”

“The Committee recognises the points you make about regulation; Mr Hinton made those points in January as well, and welcomed the IWC’s recommendations. However, I do not think you can completely hide behind the regulatory framework. A core part of your business should be an understanding that in terms of infrastructure,…”

“The Minister is making an important point. The economics of higher education are actually quite complicated; there is a great deal of cross-subsidy, with the humanities and the arts effectively supporting science, medicine and engineering courses and so on. Does the Minister agree that we should be worried that the Opp…”

“Will the Leader of the House join me in congratulating Dan Blackman and in thanking all others at the Silklife church food bank, along with the other food banks and community groups across Macclesfield, including Cre8 and the CORE pantry, for their extraordinary dedication in supporting people who face food poverty? As…”

“I put on record that I chair the all-party parliamentary group on Spain. I congratulate the Government on this significant agreement. Can the Minister confirm that it provides additional safeguards to Gibraltar’s sovereignty, while creating new economic opportunities? I think he was alluding to that with the airport. I…”

“It is an uncomfortable truth that England now has the most expensive public university system in the world. The Institute for Fiscal Studies has told us that, while the taxpayer underwrites 45% of its cost, students and graduates cover 55%, which represents a profound shift in how we fund higher education in this count…”