The Wombles joined Southampton Test MP Satvir Kaur and local environmental campaigners for a community litter pick at Shirley Pond Park.
In a litter pick with a difference, the iconic Wombles teamed up with volunteers and Satvir Kaur MP to help tidy Shirley Pond Park. The park forms part of the Lordsdale Greenway, which has recently been designated a Local Nature Reserve.
More families and children in Southampton Test will soon benefit from free, daily breakfast clubs as the Labour government confirms the next 500 schools to offer the scheme from April, including St Mark’s and Mason Moor Primary School in Southampton, putting up to £450 a year back in local parents’ pockets. It represents a campaign win for Southampton Test’s Labour Member of Parliament, Satvir Kaur, who wrote to all eligible local schools to encourage them to apply to join the scheme. As a result, 1027 children in their constituency will be able to access a nutritious meal at the start of the day, as the schools join Bevois Town Primary School which was an early adopter of the free breakfast club rollout.
Following the shocking fire at Southampton General Hospital yesterday, I know many local residents are understandably worried about what this means for appointments, visits to loved ones, and the safety of patients and staff.
First and foremost, I want to reassure everyone that I have been told that no one was hurt as a result of the fire. Thanks to the swift response of courageous hospital staff and our incredible emergency services, patients were moved to safety and the situation was brought under control quickly. I want to put on record my personal and heartfelt thanks to everyone involved for their professionalism and calm under such intense pressure. You are the very best of us and we are all hugely grateful to you for your bravery.
I know that many local residents are anxious about the situation, and so I have put together a brief Q&A to hopefully help with any concerns:
Satvir Kaur MP has welcomed the Labour Government’s announcement that ground rents will be capped at £250 a year, calling it a “long overdue step that will make a real difference to leaseholders in Southampton Test”.
Satvir Kaur, Labour MP for Southampton Test, has today welcomed the announcement of sweeping reforms to clean up the water industry, strengthen regulation and put an end to failing water companies marking their own homework.
After more than a decade of weak oversight by Conservative governments, the reforms set out in today’s Water White Paper will create a new single water regulator with tough new powers, including a Chief Engineer to carry out hands-on checks of water infrastructure and stop pipes, pumps and treatment works being left to crumble.
Families in Southampton Test are more than £1,670better off when taking out a typical mortgage since Labour came to office, new analysis has found.
A household taking out a new, representative, mortgage on a £260,000 house in December 2025 – the median price in Southampton Test – will pay £1,670a year less than they if they took out an identical mortgage in June 2024, at the time of the election.
This week, it was my absolute pleasure to be invited to attend St Denys Primary’s annual carol concert, held opposite the school at St Denys Church. Whilst, first and foremost, I was there to enjoy the incredible show laid on by the students, I was also there to present prizes to the winners of my 2025 Christmas card competition.
I am very grateful to the students of St Denys for taking part this year and a big congratulations goes to Hallie Haddon, aged 9, on coming out top with her incredible Christmas tree design!
Satvir Kaur MP has welcomed the Labour Government’s announcement that Southampton City Council will get a £84.6 million cash injection for essential services – a 32% increase in the Council’s spending power. Under the Tories, local authorities were starved of investment, with core spending power down by around a quarter since 2010. That put immense pressure on councils up and down the country, including Southampton City Council. But the Labour Government has announced a radical overhaul of how local government is funded, reversing Rishi Sunak’s cheap political efforts to put money into wealthy shires and Tory seats.
Satvir Kaur, Member of Parliament for Southampton Test, joined Business in the Community this week to deliver books to local children as part of BIC’sChristmas Books Campaign, an annual initiative that tackles low literacy rates by ensuring children in deprived areas receive books to enjoy and to help build reading confidence.
We had a fantastic second meeting of the Southampton Energy Coalition at St Mary’s Stadium this week. The Coalition is a platform I have established, in partnership with Energy Minister Lord Alan Whitehead CBE, to allow key players in the city to collaborate and increase our energy resilience.
The Coalition was established after research from the University of Southampton and Dr Alan Whitehead showed that our city could reach full electricity capacity as early as 2026. With the port electrifying, buses going greener and more data centres on the horizon, Southampton urgently needs more capacity and more clean energy of its own.
It was brilliant to get over 60 people in the room this week, including SSEN, ABP, Blue Star, Star Energy, Bring Energy and Southampton General Hospital, alongside Darren Paffey MP. There was a real buzz and a feeling of partnership at the meeting, which is exactly why we created this coalition in the first place.