Speeches by Hardy.

“I have huge sympathy for the hon. Lady’s constituents; I remember our discussion of the previous situation, in December and January, and the impact on them all. She is right that the companies should be working more effectively together, and I am keen to support them in sorting out a proper legal agreement over the bul…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for his question, which provides yet another example of the current failure of the system. He is right to feel angry about it. As I have said, the Government are working closely with Ofwat in respect of Thames Water. We stand ready for every eventuality, including applying for special administrat…”

“I beg to move, That the Committee has considered the draft REACH (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2026. I am delighted to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Roger, and I welcome all hon. Members to the Committee. The draft regulations were laid before this House on 24 March. I will go through them in detail, but in shor…”

“My hon. Friend and her constituents have had a terrible time dealing with sewage pollution. I know from the meetings that we have had together with her constituents that it is not good enough that the promised plan was not delivered, and I will urgently follow up to find out what has happened with it. As I have mention…”

“That is a hugely important issue. I have already begun to have some conversations, but those were about pregnant women, who obviously should be on the priority services register. There are concerns, as people can imagine, about data sharing and giving permission, but this is a really important point because pregnant wo…”

“As summer comes, we all want to be enjoying our beaches, going for a swim, having a paddle and not having to think about checking an app to see whether they are polluted. My hon. Friend and his constituents are right to feel angry about the current situation. We have told companies that in delivering their storm overfl…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for his question. He is right that he has been passionate about this matter for a long time. We have known each other a very long time, and—I have said this to him before—I genuinely admire and respect his passion. I know what it means to him. In fact, he was the person responsible for bringing J…”

“I welcome this opportunity to update the House on the progress the Government have made on this important issue. In these divisive times, there are few topics that unite all of us in this House—but water does. We all agree that the status quo cannot continue. Following 14 years of Conservative failure, this Labour Gove…”

“The hon. Lady wrote to me about the specific difficulties her constituents have faced, and I have huge sympathy with them; that is not acceptable. The regulator will of course be taking a close interest because one issue that South East Water faces is that it is non-compliant with its licence because it was downgraded …”

“I thank all Committee members for their support and their contributions. UK REACH is a complex but important framework that underpins how we regulate chemicals to protect human health and the environment while supporting industry and trade. My hon. Friend the Member for Mid Cheshire made an important point about the ch…”

“I know how much my hon. Friend cares about this issue, and she is right to highlight the concerns of some unions about changes. On nationalisation, as I have already mentioned, the White Paper contains a process by which different forms of ownership can be looked at, but—I do not wish to mislead my hon. Friend—that wou…”

“I thank the hon. Member for his question, but I think it is a misrepresentation—I am sure it was an accident—to say that the Government are doing any kind of deals. The Government are working closely with Ofwat, which is evaluating the consortium’s proposals. Of course, the Government will always have the best interest…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for his work as Chair of the Environmental Audit Committee. He is right to highlight the under-investment in infrastructure. In fact, some of the problems around resilience are, quite frankly, due to the under-investment in infrastructure, which is why we need to set resilience standards. He is a…”

“I thank my hon. Friend, who continues to be a formidable, incredibly impressive campaigner, as she was through her work on the Environment, Food and Rural Committee; honestly, she has been amazing. We have set out our White Paper, and a transparent process will look at whether a new model will go ahead. As the Secretar…”

“My hon. Friend cares about this issue and has raised it with me before. He is right to be angry about the issue of leakage, because water that people are paying for is ending up leaking and in the wrong places. We are tracking that leakage target through the water delivery taskforce. When we look at how we ensure that …”

“I thank the right hon. Gentleman for his question—it still feels slightly odd to be on the opposite side of this, with him questioning me. I will gently say that, yes, I do accept the premise of his question—we need tougher and more effective regulation, because the regulation system has failed—but I would have thought…”

“The hon. Gentleman is quite right. Where we are building homes, we need to ensure that they have not only an adequate water supply, but an adequate waste water supply. We are looking at that in the water delivery taskforce, and I am happy to look at the exact example that he has given.”

“I would, of course, be happy to meet with my hon. Friend.”

“I understand why the hon. Gentleman feels frustrated about this issue. Each company will set out through the price review exactly what it will deliver and when, and make priorities. As I have already mentioned in the House, we are prioritising bathing waters, chalk streams and various other areas at the moment, but he …”

“My hon. Friend is right to passionately defend customers and to be angry about the fact that money has been diverted and not used in the most effective way, which it should be. As I have mentioned, we are looking to set up a transparent process to look at various ownership models for water, such as a not-for-profit mod…”