Speeches by Reynolds.

“The principal statutory duties are the safe supply of drinking water and treatment of wastewater services. That is a different way of putting it but—”

“Overall, as I said, the statutory duties are safe drinking water and treatment of waste. Those are the two statutory duties.”

“We can talk about the intermediate steps in a moment, but the overall vision by 2050 is that we move to a more productive, more profitable, more resilient and more sustainable farming sector, and that we have a strategic shift towards a lower input and a more nature-friendly farming system.”

“You asked me this in the Chamber. We have not set—”

“I am sure. I am preaching to the converted here. We are taking that up with the—”

“We have not set a target. We would like to boost, and we can get into this, but as you will have seen, one of the first things we did in response to the Minette Batters independent farming profitability review is to set up the farming and food partnership board and take forward sector growth plans, which again is anoth…”

“We would agree with that. That is why the new approach that we are bringing forward would have statutory resilience standards, which we have not had before. We are also strengthening the data about asset health, having more forward-looking metrics for assets and asking companies to map them so that we can understand th…”

“Not the Clean Water Bill, but let me set out what we are doing on that. I am proud of the legislation that was brought forward by my predecessor, Steve Reed—the Water (Special Measures) Act 2025—which we took through Parliament as a Government within a few months of taking office. I expect every water company to keep t…”

“As David has set out, you do not have to change the primary legislation to alter the criteria; that is the problem here. Ofwat has put forward proposals to make sure that the water companies are more transparent about their remuneration. So, my analysis would be that we need to tighten up—”

“Yes, I agree with that.”

“With regard to South East Water, again just to explain the background before I come to your question, obviously I am very disappointed that it has repeatedly failed in its statutory duty—and it is a water-only company—to provide drinking water to its residents. We have had the case late last year, we have had the case …”

“As I said, there has to be a serious breach of the principal statutory duties. The statutory duties are providing safe drinking water and providing wastewater treatment services. There is an enforcement order in place against Thames. Maybe you could talk about the detail on that, David.”

“Can I add something I have done recently, just to update the Committee? In addition to the Water Minister, Emma Hardy, meeting the company last week, I have also very recently—and apologies, Alistair, I need to send you copies—sent letters to South East Water and to the regulators with regard to these disruptions, sett…”

“I will come to your question, but just to reiterate to the Committee why I presented early views on the current proposal from the creditors, I was worried about the unfair cost to the customer. As you know, it is the biggest water company in England in terms of number of consumers—16 million customers. I was worried ab…”

“I am Emma Reynolds. I am the Secretary of State. If I could let my colleagues introduce themselves, that would be nice.”

“We stand ready for all eventualities, including a special administration regime. We have done preparatory work in case that is something that transpires. At this stage in the proceedings, as Environment Secretary, given the legal constraints I am operating within, I am open to what Ofwat says—it is the independent regu…”

“We are on the side of customers. We obviously have to be a little careful in how we talk about individual companies and the prospects for SAR in the future, given that that can have an impact on their valuation if they are listed and, if they are not listed, on the way that they raise money to invest in turnaround or i…”

“We keep that under review, but I think that the rules are clear. The rules are that water bosses who do not perform well should not receive bonuses, and there are criteria that we can—”

“No, I am not blaming Steve.”

“There are nearly 300 actions in the farming road map, as you will have seen, so I would not say that it is light on detail. There are more detailed plans to go up to 2030 than there are beyond 2030. We do indicate some directions of travel beyond 2030, but the more immediate period is where we have set out more details…”