Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will make it his policy to rename the combined authority of Hampshire and the Solent to include a reference to the Isle of Wight.

In January 2025 we received an expression of interest from all four constituent councils (Hampshire County Council, Portsmouth City Council, Southampton City Council and the Isle of Wight Council) to establish a combined county authority over this area. They unanimously proposed the name ‘Hampshire and the Solent’. The Hampshire and the Solent mayoral combined county authority can also change its name by resolution once it is established, should it decide to.