Your council

Southampton: what’s happening where you live

What the council itself has published on the five things it most shapes for a household: homes, getting about, the bill, the local environment and schools. Each line is quoted from the council’s own document, with the link. This page says what was decided or proposed; it never says whether it was right.

This page is built from official registers only; the council’s own publications have not been read yet, and every line below says so where that leaves a gap.

Southampton City Council: Unitary authority (unitary), England, South East. GOV.UK lists it as a unitary council. ONS code E06000045.

Council website · Publication scheme

Do it online

The council’s own service pages as listed by GOV.UK’s Local Links Manager (Open Government Licence), refreshed weekly; the same list of everyday services, in the same order, for every council, in GOV.UK’s wording.

Housing

We haven't read this council's own publications yet. The council’s website

Transport

We haven't read this council's own publications yet. The council’s website

Council tax

Band D set by Southampton for 2026–27: £1,998.18 of a £2,381.48 total bill in the area. MHCLG, Council Tax levels set by local authorities in England 2026 to 2027 (Open Government Licence).

We haven't read this council's own publications yet. The council’s website

Environment

We haven't read this council's own publications yet. The council’s website

Education

We haven't read this council's own publications yet. The council’s website

Changes to schools in this area recorded by the Department for Education Updated automatically

Vermont School — open, but proposed to close; reason recorded: for academy; proposed date 30 November 2026
Vermont School — proposed to open; reason recorded: new provision; proposed date 1 December 2026

In the last twelve months: 2 opened (1 reason not recorded, 1 academy converter), 1 closed (1 academy converter)

Regents Park Community College (secondary) — closed; reason recorded: academy converter, 31 December 2025
Oaktree Education Services Limited — open, 1 January 2026
Regents Park Community College (secondary) — open; reason recorded: academy converter, 1 January 2026

Get Information about Schools, DfE’s register of every school in England, refreshed daily (Open Government Licence). The register’s own reason is shown: most closures and openings are a school becoming an academy, which changes who runs it, not whether it is there.

What the council plans to spend, 2026–27

The budget for each service, as Southampton reported it to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. The same headings, in the same order, for every council in England.

Southampton: budget by service, 2026 to 2027
Service	Budget
Education services	£246.0 million
Highways and transport services	£9.2 million
Children's social care	£74.5 million
Adult social care	£118.2 million
Public health	£21.1 million
Housing services (general fund only)	£13.3 million
Cultural and related services	£13.5 million
Environmental and regulatory services	£29.2 million
Planning and development services	£10.1 million
Police services	none budgeted
Fire and rescue services	none budgeted
Central services	£12.8 million
Other services	£2.7 million
Total service expenditure	£550.6 million

Net current expenditure: net of sales, fees and charges; spending funded by the NHS, such as through the Better Care Fund, is excluded.A minus figure means the service’s income is budgeted to be more than its spending. “None budgeted” usually means another body runs that service here. Source: Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Revenue Account Budget 2026 to 2027, individual local authority data (part 1), updated 11 June 2026 (Open Government Licence).

Southampton in numbers

Official statistics for the whole council area. Each figure is the latest published, with the period it covers.

Total population: 259,424 people 30 June 2024 · Office for National StatisticsMid-year estimate of the total number of people
Median age: 34 years 30 June 2024 · Office for National StatisticsMedian age of people
Gross disposable household income per head: £20,886 2024 · Office for National StatisticsAverage income per person (£) after taxes and direct benefits
Gross median weekly pay: £625 30 April 2025 · Office for National StatisticsGross median weekly pay based on where people live (£)
Children in relative poverty after housing costs: 31.0% April 2024 to March 2025 · Department for Work and PensionsPercentage of children aged under 16 living in relative low income families After Housing Costs (AHC)
Claimant Count: 4.1% 2025 · Office for National StatisticsPercentage of people aged 16 to 64 who are claiming unemployment-related benefits
Average house price: £235,977 July 2026 · HM Land RegistryAverage monthly price of a property (£)
Housing affordability ratio (residence-based): 7.0 affordability ratio 1 April 2025 · Office for National StatisticsRatio of median house price to median gross annual residence-based earnings
Female healthy life expectancy: 59.0 years 2022 to 2024 · Office for National StatisticsAverage years expected to be lived in good health for females born in the given year
Male healthy life expectancy: 57.6 years 2022 to 2024 · Office for National StatisticsAverage years expected to be lived in good health for males born in the given year
Greenhouse gas emissions: 2.6 tCO2e per capita 2024 · Department for Energy Security and Net ZeroGreenhouse gas emissions (tCO2e) per capita
Gigabit capable broadband: 97.0% 1 January 2026 · OfcomPercentage of premises that have coverage from a gigabit-capable service (download speeds of 1,000 Mbps or more)
Public electric vehicle chargers: 69.8 per 100,000 population 1 July 2026 · Department for Transport, sourced from ZapmapPublicly available electric vehicle chargers at all speeds per 100,000 people
Active businesses: 8,255 number of enterprises 2024 · Office for National StatisticsBusinesses with turnover or employment in current year

Gathered by the Office for National Statistics in Explore Local Statistics (Open Government Licence), refreshed daily. Some figures aren’t published for every nation, so the list can be shorter outside England.

Who runs the council

51 seats in 2026. Run by: Labour, as a minority administration. Open Council Data (public domain).

Councillors by party: Labour Party 24, Liberal Democrats 8, Reform UK 8, Conservative and Unionist 6, Green Party (E&W) 5.

Next scheduled council election: 6 May 2027.

All 51 councillors, by ward

Misty Burgess (Green Party (E&W)) — Banister & Polygon
Pat Evemy (Labour Party) — Banister & Polygon
Vivienne Windle (Labour Party) — Banister & Polygon
Ginnie Lambert (Labour Party) — Bargate
Luke Reynolds (Green Party (E&W)) — Bargate
Sarah Bogle (Labour Party) — Bargate
Richard Blackman (Liberal Democrats) — Bassett
Sam Chapman (Liberal Democrats) — Bassett
Sarah Wood (Liberal Democrats) — Bassett
Jacqui Rayment (Labour Party) — Bevois
Paul Kenny (Labour Party) — Bevois
Toqeer Kataria (Labour Party) — Bevois
Amanda Barnes-Andrews (Labour Party) — Bitterne Park
Gordon Cooper (Labour Party) — Bitterne Park
Phil Webb (Labour Party) — Bitterne Park
Philip Crook (Reform UK) — Coxford
Rebecca Greenhalgh (Labour Party) — Coxford
Rebecca McCreanor (Liberal Democrats) — Coxford
Christie Lambert (Labour Party) — Freemantle
Dave Shields (Labour Party) — Freemantle
Sam Pryce (Green Party (E&W)) — Freemantle
Peter Baillie (Conservative and Unionist) — Harefield
Richard Piaktiewicz (Reform UK) — Harefield
Rob Harwood (Conservative and Unionist) — Harefield
Christian Cox (Labour Party) — Millbrook
Ross Mould (Reform UK) — Millbrook
Steven Galton (Conservative and Unionist) — Millbrook
Eamonn Keogh (Labour Party) — Peartree
Simon Letts (Labour Party) — Peartree
Soham Bandyopadhyay (Reform UK) — Peartree
John Savage (Labour Party) — Portswood
Kat Barbour (Green Party (E&W)) — Portswood
Lori Foster (Green Party (E&W)) — Portswood
Eugene McManus (Labour Party) — Redbridge
John Edwards (Reform UK) — Redbridge
Sally Goodfellow (Labour Party) — Redbridge
Alice Kloker (Labour Party) — Shirley
Chris Shank (Liberal Democrats) — Shirley
Rebecca McCreanor (Liberal Democrats) — Shirley
Jaden Beaurain (Conservative and Unionist) — Sholing
James Baillie (Conservative and Unionist) — Sholing
Sarah Powell-Vaughan (Reform UK) — Sholing
Jon Walsh (Liberal Democrats) — Swaythling
Lorna Fielker (Labour Party) — Swaythling
Thomas Gravatt (Liberal Democrats) — Swaythling
Josh Allen (Labour Party) — Thornhill
Tim Kiff-Munds (Reform UK) — Thornhill
Yvonne Frampton (Labour Party) — Thornhill
Rob Stead (Conservative and Unionist) — Woolston
Ryan Collett (Reform UK) — Woolston
Warwick Payne (Labour Party) — Woolston

Each councillor’s register of interests is on the council’s own website; we have not yet located the page. Councillors from Open Council Data as recorded after the May 2026 elections; a by-election since then may have changed one seat. Attendance and allowances are not shown.

This council’s meeting papers are not yet read automatically, so decisions and motions are not listed here; they are on the council’s website.

Write to your councillors → WriteToThem (mySociety) finds them from your postcode; nothing is sent through this site.

Cite this page

Harvard style. Every figure on the page also names its original source, which is usually the better thing to cite.

Every council page has the same five headings in the same order. Sources are the council’s own publications and official statistics. Council list: mySociety, UK Local Authorities (CC BY 4.0) and WhatDoTheyKnow authorities (CC BY-SA 4.0); council websites, tiers and service links: GOV.UK (Open Government Licence); codes: ONS Code History Database (Open Government Licence). Corrections: hello@whatsittome.org.