What I spend my time on
You will find that myself and my colleague John Denham work very hard to help Southampton stay a prosperous, functioning city and thriving community. If you'd like to see some specific areas of work then take a look at my reports.
There are several other areas that are of particular interest to me. Partly because I have a Ph.D in politics, I'm very interested in how government functions, particularly constitutional affairs. This may sound rather difficult to relate to 'real life', but how decisions are reached, and our rights are affected, can have a knock-on effect in all our lives.
I'm also very concerned about how we use energy, and how we deal with our waste as a society. I chair two parliamentary groups on renewable energy and sustainable waste, which allows me to ask the difficult questions about how we are to meet our energy needs and environmental commitments.
But I am always interested in what you think is important so please continue to get in touch and let me know.
A short biography
Alan graduated with a degree in Politics and Philosophy from Southampton University and went on to achieve a Ph.D. in Political Science. In 1980 he became a Councillor in Southampton and then Leader of the Council when Labour took control in 1984.
He worked in research for two national charities during the 1980s and early 90s, and in 1992, came off the City Council and became Professor of Public Policy at Southampton Institute (now Southampton Solent University).
Alan was nominated by the Labour Party to stand for the swing seat of Southampton Test in the early 1980s. He made progress in the seat in 1987 and 1992, and finally won in 1997. Alan was re-elected as the Labour MP for Southampton Test in 2010 - the first time in the constituency's history that it has elected an 'opposition' Labour MP.
In December 1999, he was appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Baroness Blackstone, Minister for Higher and Post-16 Education. From June 2001 - May 2002 he served as Minister in the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions, responsible for Local Government, the Regions and the Fire Service.
His special interests now include further and higher education, local government, constitutional affairs, the environment, energy and transport policy.
Alan is currently a member of the Commons Select Committees on Energy and Climate Change, Environmental Audit, and Standards and Privileges.
He is the Chair of PRASEG, the Associate Parliamentary Renewable and Sustainable Energy Group and Co-Chair of APSRG, the Associate Parliamentary Sustainable Resource Group. He also chairs the All Party Parliamentary Group on Poland.
Within the Labour Party, he chairs the PLP Energy and Climate Change Backbench Group and represents the PLP on Labour's Living Standards and Sustainability Policy Commission.
He is a Fellow of the Institute of Waste Management, and member of the Board for The Environment Centre (Southampton) and the Centre for the Third Age (Southampton). He is a Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Media, Arts and Society at Southampton Solent University.
He has served on public bill committees for every major piece of environmental legislation in recent years, including for the Climate Change Act in 2007, the Marine Bill in 2008, the Coastal Access Act in 2009, the Energy Act in 2009 and the Energy Act in 2011.
He tweets at @alanwhiteheadmp and blogs on energy and environment policy at Alan's Energy Blog.
What do you think about this story? Email Alan
