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Coastal communities must be part of the conversation
Antonia Charlesworth Stack Antonia Charlesworth Stack

Coastal communities must be part of the conversation

New government data shows seven neighbourhoods in Blackpool among the top 10 most deprived in the country. This is a reminder of the consequences of decades of neglect but these figures do not define us. We are a resilient, creative community with real strengths and potential.

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Typhoon deal secures thousands of jobs for the Fylde Coast
Antonia Charlesworth Stack Antonia Charlesworth Stack

Typhoon deal secures thousands of jobs for the Fylde Coast

The Prime Minister has written to me to thank me for helping to get the Typhoon deal with Türkiye over the line. This is more than just a defence deal – it’s jobs, skills and livelihoods here on the Fylde Coast, across Lancashire and the UK.

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Women’s health inequality has gone on too long – this government is putting it right
Antonia Charlesworth Stack Antonia Charlesworth Stack

Women’s health inequality has gone on too long – this government is putting it right

Women represent more than half of the population, and between reproductive health, pregnancy and birth, longer life expectancy they are more likely to need medical care across their lifetime. But there’s a huge gender bias in medicine means women’s symptoms often go under-recognised or misdiagnosed. Too many women have been ignored, dismissed or told to just get on with it. That ends now.

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Renters rights become law
Antonia Charlesworth Stack Antonia Charlesworth Stack

Renters rights become law

My office regularly hears from people living in unfit housing. I’ve fought for those tenants, pushed the council and housing providers to act and helped people move into safe homes. Now, with this new law, they won’t have to rely on luck or persistence alone. They’ll have rights on their side.

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No child should be priced out of a fair start
Antonia Charlesworth Stack Antonia Charlesworth Stack

No child should be priced out of a fair start

This week’s Cost of a Child 2025 report from the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) makes for grim but essential reading. It confirms what is already clear to us in Blackpool – families are being priced out of a basic standard of living and government policy is making it worse.

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Why I’m launching a survey on SEND
Antonia Charlesworth Stack Antonia Charlesworth Stack

Why I’m launching a survey on SEND

In my first year as your MP I’ve visited nearly every school across Blackpool South and one issue has come up more than any other – support for children with special educational needs and disabilities, or SEND.

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Cleaning up Blackpool, street by street
Antonia Charlesworth Stack Antonia Charlesworth Stack

Cleaning up Blackpool, street by street

One of the best outcomes of my Beyond the Prom tour this summer was working with Enveco, our local environmental team. We spotted problems from fly tipping to dog fouling and overgrown weeds and they cleared them.

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My call for investment in South Shore
Antonia Charlesworth Stack Antonia Charlesworth Stack

My call for investment in South Shore

This week in Parliament, I called on the Communities Minister to make sure the full £1.5 million Pride in Place Impact Fund for Blackpool is spent in South Shore.

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Better Start offers better future
Antonia Charlesworth Stack Antonia Charlesworth Stack

Better Start offers better future

I’ve long said that Blackpool has the answers to its own problems and when MPs from the Health and Social Care Committee came to Blackpool this summer, I was proud to demonstrate to them exactly what I mean. What they found, in fact, were perhaps answers to the whole country’s problems – at least when it comes to the first 1,000 days of life.

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Blackpool gets £45,000 boost to tackle rough sleeping and addiction
Antonia Charlesworth Stack Antonia Charlesworth Stack

Blackpool gets £45,000 boost to tackle rough sleeping and addiction

In Blackpool we see the impact of addiction, mental ill health and homelessness every day. Too many people are stuck in a cycle they can’t break on their own and this new funding will go straight into treatment and recovery services that help people turn their lives around.

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Libraries for all primaries
Antonia Charlesworth Stack Antonia Charlesworth Stack

Libraries for all primaries

This week the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, confirmed that every state primary school in England will have a library by the end of this Parliament. Labour will provide libraries to the 1,700 schools currently without one. The funding comes from £132.5 million unlocked from Dormant Assets.

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Government hands Blackpool community new powers and investment to restore Pride in Place
Antonia Charlesworth Stack Antonia Charlesworth Stack

Government hands Blackpool community new powers and investment to restore Pride in Place

The Pride in Place programme is the biggest shift of power from Westminster to towns like ours in history. Layton and Grange Park are set to receive £20 million of long-term investment – guaranteed funding over the next decade. On top of that, Blackpool has been awarded £1.5 million in Impact Fund money for immediate improvements to shared spaces, high streets and the public realm.

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