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1,335 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARD Farmland FloodingThose are all great projects, but farmers plan long in advance; it is not an 18 or 24-month process, and if the funding runs out in two years and there is no visibility beyond…15 Jan 2025HANSARD Farmland FloodingI beg to move, That this House has considered nature-based solutions for farmland flooding. It is great to see you in your place, Dr Murrison. Before I start, I will draw your…15 Jan 2025HANSARD Farmland FloodingOf course I agree. My message to the Government is that when they are dealing with flooding, particularly through the Environment Agency, they need to do so in collaboration with…15 Jan 2025HANSARD Farmland FloodingThe hon. Gentleman is entirely right. One of the beauties of the environmental land management scheme brought in by the last Government is that it has three stages. There is the…15 Jan 2025HANSARD Farmland FloodingThe hon. Lady is right in concept, in that where there is uninsured loss of productive farmland caused by flooding, the last Government was right to create the farming recovery…15 Jan 2025HANSARD Farmland FloodingMy hon. Friend is absolutely right. The basis behind my seeking this debate is to highlight the need for continued, not new, Government support. ELMs is a Brexit dividend. It…15 Jan 2025HANSARDWater (Special Measures) Bill [ Lords ] (Fourth sitting)Okay, perhaps the Minister is right—perhaps the detail of what percentage of debt or what multiple of revenue is appropriate should be established by the commission and the wider…14 Jan 2025HANSARDWater (Special Measures) Bill [ Lords ] (Third sitting)The shadow Minister is right that a lot of the supposed solutions were uncosted and had an impractical timeframe. One that springs to mind was the Liberal Democrat amendment that…14 Jan 2025HANSARDWater (Special Measures) Bill [ Lords ] (Third sitting)I have a slightly cheeky intervention. Is the shadow Minister aware that there is a debate in Westminster Hall at 4 o’clock tomorrow led by yours truly on nature-based solutions…14 Jan 2025HANSARDWater (Special Measures) Bill [ Lords ] (Third sitting)The hon. Gentleman will perhaps know that under current insolvency law, there are secured creditors. There is a hierarchy of debt, and the least protected—not the most…14 Jan 2025HANSARDWater (Special Measures) Bill [ Lords ] (Third sitting)They will be right at the bottom.14 Jan 2025HANSARDWater (Special Measures) Bill [ Lords ] (Third sitting)The hon. Gentleman is conflating the term creditor with debt provision, but actually there is a plethora of suppliers to any large organisation such as a water undertaker. They…14 Jan 2025HANSARDWater (Special Measures) Bill [ Lords ] (Fourth sitting)One possible reason why regulated capital value is important is that the assessment of whether bills are reasonable or not relates—in part, at least—to what is considered to be a…14 Jan 2025HANSARDWater (Special Measures) Bill [ Lords ] (Third sitting)The hon. Gentleman says it is the creditors who put the undertakers in the position that they are in, but surely that cannot be right. Creditors are the people who provide…14 Jan 2025HANSARDWater (Special Measures) Bill [ Lords ] (Fourth sitting)I am grateful to the hon. Member for allowing me another intervention, this time on proposed new subsection (2DZB)(a), which refers to “a prohibition on water or sewerage…14 Jan 2025HANSARDWater (Special Measures) Bill [ Lords ] (Fourth sitting)This is a genuinely interesting point. I know it is late, but I would be grateful if the hon. Member could expand in further detail. While he is referencing regulated capital…14 Jan 2025HANSARDWater (Special Measures) Bill [ Lords ] (Fourth sitting)I would like the Minister’s comments on the issue that we have, and I am focusing primarily on the Norfolk broads, of which I represent a good chunk. There is the requirement to…14 Jan 2025HANSARDWater (Special Measures) Bill [ Lords ] (Fourth sitting)I am afraid I have to make the same point about new clause 27. Proposed new section 4A(1)(a) contains an absolute duty on the undertaker, which “must”—so this is a…14 Jan 2025HANSARDWater (Special Measures) Bill [ Lords ] (Fourth sitting)To save everyone’s time, I will not make a speech on this, but I am concerned about new clause 12 because it confers an absolute duty regarding chalk streams. I represent a…14 Jan 2025HANSARDWater (Special Measures) Bill [ Lords ] (Fourth sitting)The hon. Member says that privatisation has demonstrably failed. I challenge him on that. There are elements of privatisation that have failed: the refinancing, the imposition of…14 Jan 2025