Ian Sollom MP Newsletter - 9th April
Welcome to the latest of my newsletters, updating you on my work in Westminster and across St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire.
With conflict in the Middle East deepening and the cost of living still weighing heavily on many, these are anxious times. Households are already stretched, and the prospect of rising energy bills, driven by global instability, will only add to that pressure. Against that backdrop, this newsletter covers some of the battles I have been fighting for constituents — from NHS waiting times and the Child Maintenance Service to online safety and the proposed changes to immigration rules — as well as some more encouraging things happening in our area.
Winter 2025/26 Health Survey results
In one of my previous newsletters, I wrote about the launch of my health survey, which asked residents about their experience of NHS services. The survey was completed by more than 500 people and revealed major issues from lengthy waiting times for GP appointments and referrals, to long waits in A&E, delays and cancellations of surgery, through to a severe lack of NHS dentists.
Since my election in 2024, I have spent much time in Parliament fighting for our services, including regularly raising issues with Health Secretary Wes Streeting, meeting with Health Ministers to discuss individual cases, asking questions in the House of Commons and taking part in key debates on national issues. Among other things, I have campaigned for the community health hub in Northstowe and a health centre at Wintringham; demanded fully-funded end-of-life care and support for Arthur Rank Hospice; called for improvements to mental health services for autistic people and those with learning disabilities; and continually raised concerns about the abolition of NHS England and the subsequent reduction in NHS staffing levels.
Progress has been made in many areas over the past year: cancer care wait times are improving, Bourn and St Neots Almond Road GP surgeries have both successfully secured funding to expand for the growing population, and I know that our local hospital trusts are working hard to make improvements to emergency care. But there is still a huge amount to be done, and I am determined to keep fighting for the best healthcare for our area.
Thank you to everyone who took the time to complete the survey. Over the coming weeks, I will be highlighting some of the major issues that emerged from it and detailing how I will continue to put pressure on the Government to bring about vital changes in our area.
Visit to Nyobolt – World-class green innovation in Impington
I recently had a fascinating visit to Nyobolt, an Impington-based spinout from the University of Cambridge which builds super-fast charging, high-power and long cycle-life lithium-ion batteries. This technology dramatically reduces charging times for a range of products such as home appliances to robotics and electric vehicles, which in turn minimises the environmental impact of these devices.
The breakthroughs Nyobolt has made show what can be achieved when entrepreneurial ambition combines with the drive to be a leader in sustainability and advance our low-carbon energy transition. As someone passionate about strengthening the UK’s skills pipeline, universities, and start-up ecosystem, it’s genuinely inspiring to see all these areas coming together in the form of a local company developing technology that will more sustainably power the industries of the future.
One of the key issues that was raised with me was the increasing difficulty of recruiting global talent here in the UK. Nyobolt is demonstrating a clear drive to nurture talent through their internship programmes, but their international skills pipeline is being squeezed by uncertainty around visa requirements and UK tax policy. If the Government wants economic and technological growth, it must provide the right support to companies like Nyobolt, and I will continue to make this point to Ministers.
Online harms & Royal Society Pairing Scheme
Every week, I hear from parents, young people and local organisations who are concerned about the increasing harm that children are facing online. The internet can be a wonderful place for making connections and exploring interests, but our current legislation is allowing bad actors to slip through the net, and children are continuously being fed deeply harmful content by algorithms built to keep them hooked.
Recently, alongside the Molly Rose Foundation, I held a debate in the House of Commons that gave MPs the opportunity to share the many tragic stories about the impact of online harm, and to push the Government to strengthen the Online Safety Act so that it keeps pace with changing technology and the threats it is presenting. You can read my speech here.
I had been lucky enough earlier that week to participate in the Royal Society Pairing Scheme, where I was paired with Dr Lizzy Winstone; a researcher from the University of Bristol whose work focuses on how young people use social media and its impact on their mental health. Specifically, as I explored in my speech, she looks into the way that a large part of online harm is structural, arising not just from individual bad actors or harmful content, but business models designed at their very core to maximise attention and to profit from provocation.
The Government is currently holding a consultation on how children use the internet, but they must work at pace to fill the legislative gaps that are allowing harms to persist now. After many debates on this topic and countless tragic stories raised in Parliament, it is not good enough to act slowly. We Liberal Democrats have seen support for our calls for a robust, risk-based minimum age limit on social media from the likes of the NSPCC and the Molly Rose Foundation, and we continue to press for better incentives for social media giants to put the safety of our children first.
Government changes to Indefinite Leave to Remain – Community meeting in St Neots
If the Government presses ahead with its changes to the immigration and settlement system, the UK may lose a significant part of its healthcare workforce, children might be forced to move 'back' to countries they have never lived in, and families will be broken apart.
These are just some of the stories I heard at a community meeting I held recently in St Neots about the Government's proposals to retrospectively tighten requirements for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR). It was attended by over 70 people holding many different visas - from Health & Social Care Worker, Global Talent, ECAA and British National (Overseas) - who had all written to me with their concerns.
The Government's claim that these reforms will encourage better integration in our communities is absurd. How can people integrate when they can't commit to buying a house, when their children won't be able to attend university on home fees, and when their finances will be further squeezed by paying NHS surcharge and visa renewal fees for double the time they were originally promised? These are the very real worries that families expressed to me, and they are the questions I continue to raise with the Home Secretary.
To say that people need to now 'earn' again their settlement when they have complied with all their visa rules so far, and when they have been living, working and volunteering in our communities - in our care homes and hospitals, starting businesses, and researching at our universities - for years, is simply unjust. Our visa system is already a selection mechanism, and the promises we made to these people on the grounds of their visa must be kept.
We should hear the outcome from the Home Office consultation soon, and I will continue to work alongside my Liberal Democrat colleagues to press the Government to change course on these proposals.
If the proposals are to go ahead, the Government has significant questions to answer about their implementation. There were many contradictions and unclear rules raised with me at the meeting, and I will be following up on all of them.
Child Maintenance Service – Marking Single Parents Day with Gingerbread
Fixing the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) has been one of my core campaigns since being elected. I receive a large volume of correspondence from constituents on its many issues. I recently joined the charity Gingerbread on Single Parents Day to call on the Government to make good on its promise for reform of the service.
On the day, we heard from some of the ‘superhero’ single parents who received awards for their work and contribution to supporting others, campaigning and fundraising. They spoke movingly about their experience of juggling different challenges and responsibilities on their own, and the need for better emotional and practical support so that they and their children can thrive.
The current CMS is causing severe financial hardship and emotional distress both to many paying and receiving parents, and to their children. Having met with the Minister in charge over the summer, I continue to raise individual constituent cases with the Department for Work and Pensions. Alongside this, I am campaigning for a reversal of the plan to charge parents admin fees to use the system, named case managers for parents, and lowering the 25% threshold for payment re-calculations, which currently means that a parents’ income can increase substantially before their child receives any money.
Single parents do an incredible job, and battling the CMS should not be adding to their list of challenges.
Mitigating flood risk in Longstanton, Oakington and Westwick and other parishes
I have written a few times in my newsletter about how housing development in our area must come alongside investment in education, healthcare and water infrastructure. We have a new town proposed at Tempsford just outside the western end of the constituency, and a similar situation with development at Northstowe on the eastern side.
One area particularly impacted by this development is Longstanton, Oakington and Westwick, where I recently met with the local Environmental Action group and Parish Council to discuss their concerns about flood risk in the area. In particular, their concern that one of the proposed warehouse and business park developments along the A14 will increase the risk of flooding in these already flood-prone areas.
With multiple proposals for this type of development along the A14, each will affect different parishes in different ways. I will be urging all developers to ensure that in any proposals they not only mitigate flooding risk, but actively bring forward measures to reduce flood risks.
Cambridge Development Corporation - Cambridge Independent monthly column
Each month I write an opinion column for the Cambridge Independent - this month on my concerns surrounding the establishment of a Cambridge Development Corporation. You can read my column here.
St Neots - Bid for UK Town of Culture 2028
I recently met a constituent in Parliament who told me how much she loves St Neots, and that her only worry is that there is simply “too much to do” in the town. The reality of an MP’s inbox is that I often only receive correspondence when residents have issues with a particular service in our area or want to raise concerns about a variety of policy topics. My job is to represent our area, and while that does of course mean that most of my time is spent fighting for a better life for local residents, it also means celebrating the many positives there are about living here too.
I was proud recently to back the bid for St Neots to be UK Town of Culture 2028. The town has so much going for it, and there are already a whole host of organisations who have given the project their backing, from local councils, to amateur dramatic groups, radio stations and social clubs, and of course the Neotists – who are leading the charge.
This is our chance to celebrate the history and culture of St Neots, the biggest town in Cambridgeshire, and to highlight the passion and dedication of those who have worked so hard to make the community as vibrant as it is. You can read more about the bid here.
Parliamentary Business
I always endeavour to represent residents of St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire in Westminster on issues you care about. Thank you to everyone who writes to me each week, expressing your views, sharing campaigns, and inviting me to attend various meetings in Parliament and in the constituency.
Here is a taste of some more of the work I have been doing recently:
Spoke to the Early Birds and Loves Farm WI in St Neots about my career before Parliament and answered questions about planned development and its impact on local infrastructure.
- Met with constituents at a lobby day in Westminster to discuss the Crime and Policing Bill and its proposals to change rules around the right to protest and signed EDM 2272 calling for a reversal on these proposals.
- Celebrated the achievements of Cambridge Regional College and the Citizen Hub in St Neots as they won an award for their work to bring together employers and local voluntary groups to support young people not in education or employment.
- Supported Marie Curie’s ‘Great Daffodil Appeal’ and spoke to palliative care nurses about their experience and how much interest the Assisted Dying Bill has sparked in the country’s end-of-life care capacity.
- Discussed the support needed for SME construction companies with my constituent, Louis, who is working for Urban and Civic in Cambourne when he came to Parliament for an event with the Home Builders Federation.
- Held my regular meeting with Mike Sheridan, East of England Lead at Ofsted, to discuss constituency issues.
- Marked Young Carers Action Day with an impressive group of young people who were visiting Parliament to campaign for proper support in schools and more funding so they don’t miss out on education because of their responsibilities at home.
Surgeries and Further Information
Each week I have been holding both in-person and online surgeries to speak directly to constituents about their issues. If you feel you have a problem I could help with, or you have a campaign matter you would like to discuss with me, please don’t hesitate to contact me at ian.sollom.mp@parliament.uk to request a surgery appointment.
I will continue to keep you updated about my work to represent the constituents of St Neots & Mid Cambridgeshire. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch, volunteer or get involved with our campaigns.
If you are writing as a constituent, I will need to verify that you reside in the St Neots & Mid Cambridgeshire parliamentary constituency to reply and deal with your case. Therefore, please ensure that you have included your full name and home address in your email.
I receive a significant volume of campaign and casework emails each day. Therefore, I ask for your patience as my team respond to new emails. Please know your messages are being received and we are working as fast as we can to respond to every inquiry.
Best wishes,
Ian Sollom MP
St Neots & Mid Cambridgeshire