Business of the House

Debate between Penny Mordaunt and Philip Dunne

Thursday 21st March 2024 Commons Chamber

[Penny Mordaunt]

I hope that the hon. Lady has raised that matter with the relevant Department. The next DLUHC questions will be on 22 April. I understand from the opening remarks of her question that it relates to particular accommodation suppliers rather than to utility companies and other standing charges, so I encourage her to raise any particular issues with those organisations.

[Philip Dunne (Ludlow) (Con)]

Will my right hon. Friend find time for a debate to allow Shropshire MPs to point out that, contrary to disingenuous Lib Dem leaflets, it is the Conservative Government who are taking action to clean up our rivers, to help consumers buy British produce from our farmers, and to bring down the cost of living by supporting the vulnerable, raising the state pension next month by double the current rate of inflation and cutting taxes for those in work?

[Penny Mordaunt]

My right hon. Friend is absolutely right. In addition to all the progress that has been made on increasing monitoring of storm overflows—which was just 7% when we came to office, and is now 100%—a huge amount of infrastructure work is being done across the country to ensure that we can reduce those storm overflows when they happen, and that sewage is not released into our seas or waterways. On 12 March, Water UK published its storm overflow action plan dash- board for all overflows in England. I encourage people to go online and look at that: they can see the work that has been done, as well as future work, and the date by which it has been done. Massive progress has been made.

I agree with the other points that my right hon. Friend has made. We are supporting farmers across the whole of the UK, particularly the Conservatives in Wales, who are fighting Labour’s plans to make farmers’ lives harder. I thank my right hon. Friend for all he is doing on all fronts; he will know how to secure a debate on all those issues if he so wishes.