Speeches by Dollimore.

“Yes.”

“People will find that reassuring.”

“We talk a lot about environmental degradation and sewage dumping, but, as a Committee, we have also focused on water outages and particularly the experience of people who are suffering a major incident where there is a water supply interruption. The handling of that by companies has been particularly appalling. We have…”

“I understand that. Particularly because you have talked about having a number of meetings with the water industry and the chief executives, it is important that there is seen to be a fair balance of different experiences in your evidence.”

“I would like to invite you to come and visit Hastings and Rye because we have been at the forefront of the scandal in the water industry. Not only have we suffered huge amounts of sewage dumping, which as a coastal town has really severely impacted us, like many coastal towns, but we have suffered two major water outag…”

“What visits have you done?”

“I am going to focus on the experiences of the public. I use that phrase quite deliberately because we often talk about customers and billpayers, but a toddler who wants to go paddling on Hastings beach and is told they cannot because there has been a sewage dumping is just as entitled to make use of our beaches and our…”

“Is that right?”

“Does that not speak to the broken culture in the industry?”

“If bonuses are so important to performance and we are interested in a water sector that is fixing its broken infrastructure, is the bonus structure for the lowest-paid staff not a crucial part of that?”

“No one is talking about changing the floor at which the lowest-paid members of staff are paid. We are talking about the ceiling. If we look at the chief executive level, they are often looking at bonuses of 150%; for the lower-paid members of staff, it is 3% to 5%.”

“Sir Jon, on this point on bonuses, the Committee has heard a lot of evidence from water CEOs trying to justify eye-watering bonuses while overseeing a lot of failure. Like you just have, they often explain that they think bonuses are very important to incentivise performance. When we then press them on, therefore, what…”

“Yes, that is correct.”

“Just to finalise that point, the infrastructure that we have talked about is, of course, the international station at Ashford, which was opened after huge taxpayer investment into that as an international station. We therefore also believe there is a relevance here about taxpayers’ money being well spent in seeing thos…”

“I thank you, Chair, and the whole Committee for hearing our application today. We are asking for a debate about returning international rail services to Ashford International railway station and the merits of that. This issue has not been debated yet in this Parliament. It matters hugely to all our constituents and all…”

“You talked earlier about the legal battles that we have seen, with campaigners urging companies to release certain data, and companies initially resisting that and spending vast sums on legal battles to resist that before eventually acquiescing. It sounded from your comments that you feel that was wrong; it was a mista…”

“Have you spoken to the trade unions as part of your evidence submissions?”

“I have two more quick questions and then I will let you get on. First, you have talked about the need to hire 30,000 skilled workers in this industry.”

“It is a good thing people are using the sea and swimming more, to be clear.”

“I do not think you would want that to come across otherwise, but do you not see the urgency in this? There are many people who want to swim in their local areas who put it off at the moment because the quality is not good enough or they cannot risk the tummy upset that comes from it. That is an urgent task, surely, for…”