Speeches by Pakes.

“Heidi, as chief executive, you have just heard a colleague on behalf of your company say it does not matter; it is not taken into account. How comfortable are you at looking us and the public in our eyes and saying, “In our model, it does not matter how much sewage we pump out; that is an irrelevant factor to the amoun…”

“I do think complex organisations like yourselves can look at more than one metric at one time, so let me rephrase. Personally, as chief executive, from this day onward, now that you have said it has been recognised, do you believe the amount of sewage that you put out should be factored into dividends and your executiv…”

“So why was it not included to this point?”

“In November 2024, it was reported that Northumbrian Water executives received £315,000 in bonuses despite sitting on Ofwat’s elevated concern watch list. Is that right?”

“But not linked to the amount of sewage you are pumping out?”

“Moving aside from the independent committee, you are personally comfortable with having criteria for a bonus that will be quite literally more than most people in this country earn in a year. You are comfortable with that not having any performance-related element around the amount of sewage you are pumping out.”

“That is an answer to a different question. The question I asked was whether you, as a senior British business leader, are comfortable receiving a bonus payment based on criteria that do not reflect the environmental performance of sewage, which is one of the major products and anger points. You are personally, as an in…”

“With respect, the frustration is that you describe it like you are being successful on this, but you are taking record levels out in bonuses. In 2022, your total package went up 11%, which I imagine is more than what your staff got in a pay deal, unless I am wrong. I imagine not many people were getting 11% at that poi…”

“The total package was 11%, including the bonus increase.”

“I have a couple of questions for you. I might pass the baton back to our Welsh colleague as well at some point, so be nice to him. Thank you for the candour and the level of detail you have given us. I am going to ask you a couple of things and hope to get the same level of candour in terms of the challenges you are fa…”

“Welsh Water was penalised under the ODI, the outcome delivery incentive. I have trouble saying it so I had to write it down because I always want to say ODA, which would be a different thing for you. In terms of the outcome delivery incentive leading to a loss in revenues and contributing to a negative return on some o…”

“Forgive me, I represent a Midlands seat in England. Do Natural Resource Wales and the Welsh Government give you a greater level of scrutiny than perhaps companies this side of the border would face?”

“I am really interested in that because we often have conversations about how we get more granular scrutiny. In Anglian Water, which is my area, we do not have a similar devolved structure, and we should not because we do not have the identity that Wales has to do that. I have another question around Moody’s and its dow…”

“I think it is clarity between Moody’s resighting for the final price determination versus the previous draft.”

“Just one quick, hot pursuit because I heard some things in your answer that are actually different words than colleagues in other water companies have said about the structure of the bonus, the low start, in effect base-load package. Would you be in a position to write to us and explain what the structure of that model…”

“Chair, it might be useful to understand what best practice would be in a remuneration model.”

“It is nice to have some—to have some more would be quite good. Whereas we have had William Morris and John Ruskin, some colleagues seem to have been getting speechwriting advice from Lewis Carroll, because some of the speeches from Opposition Members have been through the looking glass in their description of the probl…”

“It is utterly heartbreaking to see the desecration of hostages’ bodies, and to see men, women and children returning to Gaza to try to rebuild their lives among the rubble. I welcome the Government’s efforts on humanitarian aid during this fragile ceasefire, which is becoming more fragile as tanks roll into the west ba…”

“The hon. Member and I share a county, and he will be aware that in a place such as mine, we have seen the decimation of level 2 and 3 apprenticeships. Does he not recognise that the biggest concern I hear from employers is that the current system is centralised and letting down working-class families in seats like mine…”

“Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?”