Speeches by Kirkham.

“That was going to be my next question. The SFI will be reopening and be redesigned. We have had previous evidence that that will be reconsidered in July. There are a number of farmers, particularly those smaller farmers, who did not have the advice to apply initially. What is the timeframe? When will that scheme be reo…”

“Do you mean early in the new year next year?”

“My question was just very quickly on the Planning and Infrastructure Bill. Natural England is going to have responsibility for writing and delivering environmental delivery plans. I was going to ask about the resource within Natural England to be able to cope with that. Can it cope with that? Where will the extra resou…”

“Helena may have covered this when I was out, but we were struck by the fact that only one preferred bidder, KKR, has been accepted by Thames Water, and that it seems to have been trying to negotiate with Ofwat to reduce some of the penalties that it may face for some of the breaches of the rules. Is this acceptable?”

“Negotiate with the regulator?”

“It is more about it being let off penalties as well, to make itself more saleable.”

“The hon. Member is talking about the resumption of the community ownership fund for pubs. Would the Minister consider other options, such as the British Business Bank, and look into how other funds could be used for this purpose?”

“From next year, the Government will be permanently lowering business rates for retail and hospitality businesses. Does the hon. Member agree that it would be good if the Minister confirmed that that permanent lowering will be in relation to rates as they currently are rather than pre-covid rates or last year’s rates?”

“4. What steps she is taking to support the maritime sector.”

“Cornwall has a thriving maritime sector, particularly in Falmouth, that is well-served by training establishments, such as Cornwall Marine Network and Falmouth marine school, as well as leading apprenticeship programmes across Falmouth. Much of that centres around our Port of Falmouth. Will the Ports Minister meet me a…”

“There is real concern from families in Truro and Falmouth that changes to the adoption and special guardianship support fund are being brought in before the impacts are fully known or assessed. Match funding is going from the fund, which is used for emergency support packages for the most complex cases—including childr…”

“Is that the case?”

“It is just the FT reported that in the potential sale to KKR, those bondholders may end up with quite a substantial stake.”

“So, would you say that they essentially control the company?”

“None at all?”

“Yes. One of the points that was made at the last hearing was that you were the chair of the board for Kemble—”

“At the hearing your General Council accepted that the Class A creditors are basically now the economic owners of the company.”

“The FT has stated that the current shareholders are now basically divorced from the company: they have no skin in the game or motivation to act to provide any kind of oversight to the board. Do you agree with that and if so, who is controlling the board?”

“Were the bidders aware—”

“Because there were other bidders, were there not?”