By Jamie Shapiro, Local Democracy Reporter

Southampton City Council has today (January 3) sworn in its new leader, Cllr Lorna Fielker (Lab).

The city council met at 6pm on Wednesday (January 3) to cast the official vote. The 36-strong Labour administration voted unanimously for the election of the new leader. The nine Tory opposition councillors voted unanimously against.

The restructure comes two weeks after the previous leader Cllr Satvir Kaur resigned to focus her efforts on her parliamentary candidacy.

She is the Labour candidate for Southampton Test as current Labour MP Alan Whitehead is leaving.

Fielker, who represents the Swaythling ward, spoke to the council about her predecessor’s (who is now a backbencher) ‘unwavering dedication’.

She said: “I must commend her for standing down from a job she loved because she knew it was in the best interest of the city at this time that we demonstrate stability in our leadership that she can’t provide as a parliamentary candidate.”

The new leader, pictured left, who is also a postgraduate researcher at the University of Southampton, went on to talk about the financial difficulties the authority is currently facing, namely, the likelihood that the authority will issue a section 114 notice – effectively declaring bankruptcy – in February if it can’t fulfil its legal duty of delivering a balanced budget.

She said: “Local government is in a financially difficult place right now. We are not alone and it is not our political ideology that is the cause.

“We only need to look to Conservative-led Hampshire whose leader has stated their budgets are close to breaking point – and Lib Dem-run Eastleigh which has had a best-value notice issued by Government due to significant debt.”

Cllr Fielker went on to speak of her plans as the new city head.

“I don’t underestimate the task before me as leader, the cabinet members and for the rest of the administration.

“This is a challenging time and we are leaning into that challenge.

“(We are) fully focused on what we can do differently and delivering plans that will deliver a sustainable and modern council with (the) reduced budgets that we have.”

Focuses for the council are said to be:

• Being a ‘leading cultural, maritime and economic destination’
• Growing the economy in a way that ‘benefits local people and businesses’
• ‘Access to housing’
• As well as education, access to employment and delivering ‘much-needed homes’
• The new leader said the council will ‘remain ambitious’.

With the new leader comes a cabinet reshuffle.

Changes to the cabinet are:

• Cllr Marie Finn as the cabinet member for adult social care, (Cllr Fielker’s old post).
• Cllr Andy Framton as cabinet member for housing stock and the private renters’ sector, (a new post).
• Cllr John Savage as a deputy cabinet member for the ‘green city’.
• Cllr Simon Letts, cabinet member for finance, will take Cllr Fielker’s old role of deputy leader.