Caroline has worked tirelessly to fulfil her election pledge to secure the best future for the Daedalus site, a former disused Military Airfield, to increase jobs and skills in our area.
In October 2010, Caroline organised and chaired a mini summit with all the key stakeholders which formed the Daedalus Strategy Group. She continued to chair the group until October 2015. It was instrumental in Daedalus’ successful bid to become an Enterprise Zone and successive funding bids which have seen over £50 million invested in the site by various bodies.
She continues to work closely with the Solent Local Enterprise Partnership/Solent Partners, Homes England and other stakeholders and has welcomed a number of key Government Ministers to the site. The Solent Enterprise Zone has created and/or safeguarded around 950 full time and construction jobs at Daedalus.
- In September 2014, CEMAST opened on the site, training over 1100 annually with students specialising in engineering and manufacturing.
- In March 2015, The Innovation Centre was opened supporting new businesses by providing office space, workshop facilities and financial advice.
- In 2017 the Civil Engineering Training Centre opened, offering intensive 20 week construction and groundwork apprenticeships. Over 1,665 apprentices will be trained at this centre between 2018 and 2023.
- In July 2018 a £6.6m extension to the Innovation Centre was completed, doubling the size, creating 33 new office units, five new workshops and new parking spaces as well as 300 new jobs.
- Caroline worked hard to retain coastguard facilities and jobs at the site after the closure of the Lee-on-the-Solent Maritime and Coastguard Agency and campaigned to see the new Maritime Operations Centre based locally at Titchfield.
- The second phase of Daedalus Park is now complete and nearly all of the units were snapped up whilst they were under construction. Britten Norman, the only independent civil aircraft manufacturer in the UK, are already based at Daedalus and have announced that they are creating a further 50 jobs.
Most recently, Caroline pressed Minister for Defence Procurement, James Cartlidge, to consider StandardAero Fleetlands as an ideal location for the Government's New Medium Helicopter programme, which would create upwards of 175 new jobs in the Gosport area.
Caroline is a keen supporter of apprenticeship schemes and even completed her own mini-apprenticeship as a barista at Costa Coffee on Gosport High Street. She also ran a campaign to shine a light on the diversity of apprenticeships in the Gosport Constituency, which culminated in the learners being invited to Parliament and greeted by the then-Apprenticeships and Skills Minister, the Rt Hon Robert Halfon MP.
In the early weeks as an MP, Caroline successfully campaigned against the Defence Training Review which would have seen the Royal Navy School of Engineering at HMS Sultan moved to South Wales. However, in November 2016, the Defence Estate Review announced that HMS Sultan would be disposed of by 2026. Caroline urged the Government to reconsider its decision and in February 2019 it was announced that the closure of HMS Sultan would be indefinitely delayed. In 2022, it was announced that the MOD no longer intends on disposing of HMS Sultan.
Caroline has frequently met with the owners of the Haslar Hospital estate and lobbied them to secure a positive future and local jobs on this much-loved site, which was sold off by the previous Labour Government, as well as the developers and management company, so as to raise residents' concerns. She hopes that the widely stated plans for the site will come to fruition.
As a former Women and Equalities Minister, and a current member of the Women and Equalities Committee, Caroline continues to advocate for further support for women and girls in business. During her role as Minister of Women and Equalities, Caroline championed getting more women on boards, and introduced legislation on Gender Pay Gap reporting. She also hosted an event for International Women’s Day, aimed at encouraging more women to get start and grow their own businesses. Since then, she has questioned Ministers in the House of Commons over their steps to support female entrepreneurs. At the last Budget, in March 2024, Caroline joined a successful campaign calling on the Chancellor to overturn changes to investment regulations that disproportionately disadvantaged start-ups founded and funded by women.
Most recently, Caroline welcomed Mims Davies, Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work, to Gosport, to see the seminal work being done by Gosport Health Model Office to support those with additional needs finding a job.
Caroline has also welcomed the Government's Start-Up Loan initiative which has helped 37 local businesses.
Commenting on the latest Budget, Caroline praised changes to VAT thresholds and freezes to fuel duty, which alongside the funding she secured for sites like the Waterfront development and Daedalus airport, would be extremely welcome for small businesses in Gosport, Lee-on-the-Solent, Stubbington and Hill Head.
