May I ask for a statement by the Cabinet Secretary on the intention of Severn Trent Water to buy Dee Valley Water? There are concerns about the 190 jobs—some of which are to be lost, and others are to be transferred to England. We’ve also heard about the 80 local companies that are part of the supply chain of the Dee Valley Water Company, and I wanted to ask about their future too. This also raises a broader question as to who actually owns one of our most important natural resources as a nation. Severn Trent, of course, is buying a right to a monopoly here in terms of water services and you have to ask where the consumer voice is in all of this. Doesn’t the consumer have a right to say what sort of company or enterprise looks after their water services? And so it’s not just a matter for shareholders, but also a matter for all of the company’s customers.

I have to say that the First Minister’s response to a question from the Plaid Cymru leader, Leanne Wood, when he suggested that the Government is going to correspond with the companies on this, was shocking, to say the least, because this has been public since last week. We need an urgent statement, because if that is the pace of the Government’s response to the situation, that’s quite unacceptable.