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View from Westminster, my regular Echo column

It’s another busy time for MPs as proceedings in the Commons are paused for the party conference season. For Labour, it’s where party members come together to help shape policy, and we will no doubt see a number of positive announcements, many of which will directly impact us here in Southampton.

I also have a big announcement of my own. Since my last column, my husband and I have become proud parents for the first time. We’re thrilled to welcome our beautiful daughter into the world.

A huge thank you to the brilliant team at Princess Anne Hospital for their care and to everyone who has sent kind words and support. It’s been a rollercoaster journey, and now we’re looking forward to this new adventure – sleepless nights included!

Although I’m on maternity leave, you can still contact me as usual. I’ll be back in Parliament early next year, but in the meantime, I’ll continue to work remotely, and you’ll still see me around Southampton with my baby, attending a few events locally and catching up with residents, as well as always pushing for Southampton to be at the top of the government’s agenda.

Some recent highlights include successfully securing £11.5 million in funding for the Connect to Work programme in Southampton and the wider region. With one in four young people in our city not currently in employment, education, or training, it’s vital that we create opportunities for everyone to succeed.

I’ve spoken to many residents who want to do more but simply need the right support and opportunities. This funding will provide exactly that—whether through one-to-one mentoring, or by helping local businesses take on additional staff who may have greater needs. This is a vital and much-needed investment that will open doors for hundreds of people across Southampton.

I have also been campaigning hard for additional resources from the government’s Plan for Neighbourhoods programme. This will mean millions are allocated directly to the neighbourhoods that need it most. For Southampton Test I have secured £20 million of government funding for people in Millbrook and Redbridge to invest in their communities, and it will be those local communities who get to decide how and what it is spent on. It will be a real game changer.

Alongside getting extra national investment into Southampton, I’m also working to get local resources too! Particularly when it comes to tackling crime and anti-social behaviour. Everyone deserves to feel safe where they live and work. One of my ongoing campaigns is to open a face-to-face police counter in Shirley. Residents and businesses endured months of vandalism and abuse from a group of teenagers earlier this year and while the situation has seen some improvement, it’s clear Shirley and the surrounding areas need a stronger, more consistent police presence.

That’s why I launched a petition calling for the Shirley Housing Office on the High Street, which is currently lying empty, to be turned into a police hub with a face-to-face counter for residents. The response has been really positive, with hundreds of signatures showing just how strongly our community feels.

As a result of my petition, we’re already seeing some progress. Southampton City Council has offered the use of the housing office for the counter, we’ve backed a bid for permanent CCTV in Shirley to deter crime and catch offenders, and there are now more police patrols on the streets – all thanks to your support and pressure.

Councillor Alex Winning, Leader of the council and Shirley Ward Councillor, is fully backing this campaign, and together we’re determined to make Shirley safer, more welcoming, and vibrant – while ensuring crime is taken seriously across every community in our city.

To support the petition, head to the campaigns section of my website, www.satvirkaur.info. As always, if you need my help – on this or any other issue – please get in touch. Email me at satvir.kaur.mp@parliament.uk or call 02382 546 357. I’m here to help.

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Millbrook and Redbridge to get £20 million from government fund – and locals are to decide how to spend it

Steve Reed MP, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, share the news

Satvir Kaur has secured £20 million of government funding for people in Millbrook and Redbridge to invest in their communities.

As part of the Labour government’s new Pride in Place Programme, these areas will receive £2 million per year over the course of ten years, and will be pioneering a new way of deciding how to spend public money on local projects.

The money can be spent on anything from local park improvements to fixing up empty buildings and high streets, but it is up to the residents to decide what to do with it.

The fund relies on locals from across the Millbrook estate and Redbridge coming together to submit ideas for how to spend the £20 million total, and a call has gone out for people to volunteer to sit on a local board that helps coordinate the project.

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🍼 Baby news! 👩‍🍼

This week my husband and I became very proud parents for the first time and are over-joyed to welcome our beautiful new baby daughter into the world.

Huge thanks to the wonderful team at Princess Anne Hospital and everyone’s support and best wishes during what has been a rollercoaster journey.

We’re looking forward to this new adventure (not so much the sleepless nights!) as I officially go on maternity leave to spend time with my new baby.

Thank you all so much for your understanding and kindness during this very special time for me and my new family.

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Flood Defence Capabilities in Southampton

Read my letter to DEFRA urging the government to provide funding for the River Itchen Flood Alleviation Scheme (RIFAS).

Southampton is increasingly at risk from coastal, river and surface water flooding. We are uniquely exposed to flood risk due to the city being between the River Test and Itchen, which meet in the tidal estuary Southampton Water. We need to take action now.


Dear Secretary of State,

Re: Flood Defence Capabilities in Southampton

I am writing to you regarding the increasing threat of flooding in Southampton and the urgent need to provide funding for the River Itchen Flood Alleviation Scheme (RIFAS), alongside a broader programme of flood defence and resilience investment for my constituency of Southampton Test and the wider city.

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Labour backs millions of leaseholders by launching new consultation

If you’re a leaseholder in Southampton Test you may have received a recent letter from me on Labour’s newly launched Leaseholder Consultation. I hear from so many leaseholders who are fed up with unclear, and often excessive service charges, or who are dealing with managing agents who aren’t up to scratch. Labour wants to fix this by strengthening leaseholder rights, offering new protections and real transparency. Have your say on leaseholder reform and take part.

Dear resident,

For far too many leaseholders the reality of home ownership has fallen woefully short of the dream – their lives marked by an intermittent, if not constant, struggle with punitive and escalating ground rents; unjustified permissions and administration fees; unreasonable or extortionate charges; and onerous conditions imposed with little or no consultation. This is not what home ownership should entail.

I know this has sadly been the situation for many leaseholders, and it’s through you contacting me, that together, we have kept pushing for more rights for leaseholders. And the government has listened, and reform is coming.

A consultation has now been launched, entitled “Strengthening leaseholder protections over fees, charges and services”, and it needs Southampton voices.

The consultation is in two parts. The first focuses on how to implement key measures in the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024, including:

– Making service charge demands more transparent and easier to challenge with new standardised service charge demand forms, annual reports, service charge accounts and administration charges and improving transparency around buildings insurance fees.

 – Removing barriers for leaseholders to challenge their landlord and scraping the presumption that leaseholders have to pay their landlords’ litigation costs even when they win their case.

The second part looks at going further, with proposals to:

– Reform the Section 20 ‘major works’ procedure that leaseholders go through when they face large bills for works;

– Introduce mandatory qualifications for managing agents so that all agents have the knowledge and skills they need to provide a good service for leaseholders.

Taken together, the various proposals outlined in the consultation will provide existing leaseholders with far greater rights and protections and will empower them to challenge poor practice and unreasonable charge and fees. These are just one part of the government’s plans to bring the feudal leasehold system to an end. The government also intends to publish an ambitious draft Leasehold and Commonhold Reform Bill later this year.

Some parts of the consultation are technical, but you can respond to as much or as little as you wish. The consultation will last 12 weeks and closes at the end of September, here’s the link Strengthening leaseholder protections over fees, charges and services: consultation – Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government – Citizen Space.

As your MP, I’ll continue to press for a fairer, more transparent system for leaseholders. Your experience matters. I hope you’ll take this opportunity to shape the future of these reforms and please do contact me if you need any further assistance. My email is Satvir.kaur.mp@parliament.uk and the office number is 02382 546357.

Best wishes, Satvir Kaur, Member of Parliament for Southampton Test

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Thank you for supporting my petition to stop Lloyds Shirley closing

I would like to thank everyone who signed the petition to keep the Lloyds banking branch on Shirley Road open. While it is disappointing that the bank branch will sadly close its doors for the final time on May 7, 2025, your support has played a crucial role in highlighting the importance of this vital service on Shirley High Street.

Thanks to the pressure from the petition, Lloyds has assured me that it will step up to ensure the community receives the necessary support during the closure, alongside installing a cash access solution so that residents can still deposit cash and cash cheques.

Over 400 residents have expressed their backing for the campaign to save the branch, and I am incredibly grateful for this. I have been holding regular meetings with Lloyds to challenge them and the banking group’s data to ensure that they have considered the needs of all Shirley bank’s customers. As well as urging the banking group to consider a banking hub, an option that Lloyds has repeatedly refused.

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Letter to RMG: fighting for leaseholders

Having heard heart-breaking stories from a number of resident groups in Southampton, I have joined a group of MPs working together to stand up for leaseholders.

As part of this work, I have signed a joint letter to property management company RMG demanding better for residents. Sadly, too many leaseholders and renters continue to face substandard living conditions, all while paying sky-high service fees for work that either doesn’t get completed or is poorly done.

I have been holding landlords and property management companies accountable for constituents, and I will keep pushing for change. From calling out bad landlords and freeholders in Parliament and achieving rent freezes for Compass Point in Redbridge, to holding Abri to account and securing an action plan for residents in Portswood, I’m fighting hard on this issue.

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Labour’s £20 million funding boost for Southampton’s public health services

The Labour Government is increasing funding for public health services in Southampton, as part of a £200 million national funding boost to the Public Health Grant – the biggest real-terms increase after nearly a decade of reduced spending under the Conservatives.  

As part of Labour’s plans to improve health outcomes across the country and build healthier communities, local public health services will be given more money to deliver prevention programmes, tailored to their residents.  

Southampton City Council will receive more than £20 million to help drive key health services, from help to stop smoking to addiction recovery and children’s health, and to help fund family and school nurses, sexual health clinics and other public services in the local area.  

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Spotlight on sepsis: a constituent’s story 

I was concerned to hear from a constituent recently about her experience with sepsis. She fell ill with sepsis in Spring last year and is, devastatingly, still suffering from the effects. She tells me that her life has altered dramatically.

She needs a CPAP machine to breathe at night and will need to use it for the rest of her life. She has post-sepsis syndrome, where she has extreme fatigue and is unable to return to her previous job. Apparently 40% of people who develop sepsis are estimated to suffer physical, cognitive and/or psychological after-effects, so she is one of many suffering in silence. 

She tells me that people often think nothing is wrong with her as she ‘looks fine’, but post-sepsis syndrome includes extreme fatigue and a number of physiological and physical symptoms. Muscle pain, poor sleep, short-term memory loss and arrhythmia (when the heart beats in an irregular rhythm) are all symptoms that can last well beyond the acute phase of the illness. For my constituent, the lack of understanding about her condition from others leaves her feeling even more fatigued and misunderstood.  

Sepsis is one of the least well-known medical conditions, and the number one cause of preventable death in the world. It’s tricky to diagnose and can manifest in different ways depending on a number of factors, part of the reason why it’s so hard to spot. But, having heard about the horrendous experience of my constituent, I’ve been making myself more aware of the condition and wanted to share what I’ve learned.   

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New year, new opportunities

A new year brings new change, and there’s a big one on the horizon- devolution. It’s something that has been spoken about for more than a decade but never delivered within our region. I’m pleased that under this new Labour Government, it could finally become a reality. Everyone talks about Southampton’s huge potential, and this will offer a really exciting opportunity to help deliver it. It’s why I’ve been backing this throughout, both when I was in local government and now in Westminster, speaking to Ministers about how Southampton can benefit from it. In a nutshell it means more powers and more money for our city and region.

I believe that more decisions about our area should be made more locally, by communities that they will impact, rather than always coming from Whitehall, which can often have a top down, one size fits all approach. This government believes that local people, whether you live or work here, better understand the unique challenges and aspirations of our communities.

This will be the biggest local government reorganisation in a generation, and local councils in the Solent region, including Southampton, have now submitted a formal request to be included in the Government’s Devolution Priority Programme. This is now being reviewed, and we will hopefully have further updates soon.