Speeches by Aquarone.

“North Norfolk residents, researchers and council staff all contributed to this inquiry. I welcome this report—I think it is excellent, and I thank the hon. Member for presenting it today. I wanted to ask her about two points. First, she has already touched on Flood Re; does she agree that the Government must work at pa…”

“I draw Members’ attention to my interest as a serving county councillor. May I thank the Minister for seeing through Norfolk Conservatives’ self-serving scheme for a mega-council for Norfolk? The three-unitary model will ensure that my residents get the efficiencies of joined-up services, and that decisions are still m…”

“A small business owner in my constituency who relies on Facebook and Instagram to market her flower business has had her accounts disabled and advertising blocked after she was mistakenly flagged as spam by the system; she has heard nothing back. All the while, we know that scam and spam adverts—many powered by artific…”

“But that is slightly different from what Jamie said. The total cost of ownership is competitive, but you cannot roll it out because of access to charging infrastructure, or have I misunderstood that?”

“Are you recognising that in calculating the total cost of ownership?”

“This may well be useful to answer now as we go into some of the more detailed questions, but what are the differences in need between light and heavy goods vehicles?”

“Understood.”

“David, what is the difference between HGVs and LGVs?”

“That could lead to looking at road charging rather than recovering—”

“Yes, of course.”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Efford. North Norfolk has many things to be proud of, and our half-a-billion-pound tourism industry is high on that list. However, that can bring its challenges: a seasonal economy leads to insecure employment and makes it hard for businesses to plan for the future. We…”

“Correct me if I am wrong, but even notwithstanding those abnormal loads, if you have a fleet that is basically going depot to depot there is inherently a charging opportunity at both ends of the journey. If you are not doing that type of journey, it is only the home depot that has the charging facility.”

“But even within the HGV sector, the use cases are wildly different when it comes to the charging requirements.”

“Wrong thing, wrong way, wrong time. Any builds on those, gents?”

“We have talked about how it would be charged. What about what is actually charged? Should there be different pricing or exemptions depending on vehicle age? We have touched on this a little. Are there any other ways around a per-mile charge in principle that could be made more palatable in practice?”

“Some EVs are already paying vehicle excise duty because they are classed as luxury vehicles, which is a bit of a stretch when the market entry price for a large car until quite recently was, by definition, paying high-value excise duty.”

“I do not want to anger the Chair and a witness at the same time, but is this not a chance to be simple and say that road tax is road tax and that we need to look at road charging to make up the revenue deficit?”

“Connections to market towns in my constituency are vital for our tourism and hospitality industry. We have a great branch line service, but patrons of the much-lauded Gunton Arms and Suffield Arms will know that Gunton station quite often suffers from having trains only every two hours. Does the hon. Member agree that …”

“In my constituency there is a mother whose daughter lives with a disability and is reliant on a particular type of prescription food that has to be kept at ambient temperature. If the temperature of their house drops, the food perishes, and she cannot eat. Does my hon. Friend agree that it is not just the concern facin…”

“The Government are due soon—I am sure you are eagerly awaiting it—to publish their integrated national transport strategy. Could you each give a personal wish list of one or maybe two things that you hope to see in it to improve how spatial and transport planning interact?”