Today Parliament reconvened for the next parliamentary session. During the state opening of Parliament Her Majesty the Queen outlined the government’s upcoming programme in her speech to Lords and MPs. The Government’s priority is the nation’s recovery, strengthening the NHS, reforming social care, focussing on creating jobs, supporting businesses and rebooting our economy.

The speech outlined further initiatives to rebuild and level up our country and I hope that we will see additional investment in Southampton. I will continue to campaign for our share – levelling up is about opportunity not geography.

New laws will be introduced for skills and education, this will assist those who are seeking to learn and retrain and help many to go to university who may have not been able to do so before. Furthermore, laws introducing a building safety regulator and new planning regulations will be introduced which is a positive step in the right direction to make our homes safer. Further infrastructure investment and the go ahead for the Solent Freeport will create jobs and improve our local economy in Southampton.

The Government’s tougher stance on crime will make our streets safer with the new Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, this will do more to prevent violence against women and girls and bring in tougher sentencing for violent criminals.