Helena Dollimore entered Parliament in 2024 after Labour targeted Hastings and Rye as a winnable Conservative seat. Her rise was built around an energetic local campaign and close alignment with Labour's national leadership. She presented herself as an advocate for a coastal constituency that had suffered from weak infrastructure, poor public services and repeated failures by Southern Water.

Water has been the clearest test of her political record. Hastings had already endured sewage pollution and serious supply failures, including a five-day outage in May 2024 caused by a pipe that Southern Water had reportedly identified for replacement years earlier. Dollimore used those failures to press for tougher regulation, compensation for affected businesses and restrictions on executive rewards.

She helped scrutinise the Water (Special Measures) Bill in committee and supported powers allowing regulators to block bonuses, recover investigation costs and pursue criminal cases against executives who obstructed investigations. The resulting Water (Special Measures) Act 2025 strengthened the enforcement framework.

Dollimore can reasonably claim to have brought direct experience of Southern Water's failures into the legislation's scrutiny. She cannot claim to have designed or delivered the law herself. It was a government bill, supported by Labour MPs across Parliament, and the larger decisions were taken by ministers.

Nor did the legislation settle the underlying problem. Water companies found ways around its restrictions. Southern Water almost doubled the overall pay package available to its chief executive after bonuses were restricted, while other companies recategorised incentive payments. The rules covered only certain positions and types of payment. Dollimore condemned Southern Water's response, but the episode exposed a gap between Labour's promise to end rewards for failure and what its law initially achieved.

Her most identifiable local result came from a campaign over neglected and closed playgrounds. After she raised the issue with ministers, the council and local families, £1 million from the government's Pride in Place funding was allocated to playground improvements across Hastings, including a major redevelopment in Alexandra Park. The plans were developed with Dollimore and reflected priorities identified through public consultation.

That is a tangible achievement, although the credit is shared. The £1 million came from a £1.5 million package, with £500,000 added by local government, and the decision to spend it on playgrounds involved the council and local consultation. By the cutoff date, design and procurement were under way, with completion scheduled for 2027. Dollimore helped secure the commitment; she could not yet point to completed playgrounds.

She also pursued the recovery of £150,000 in public money awarded to Owens, an entertainment centre that closed less than a year after opening. Dollimore argued that Lubov Chernukhin, a co-founder of the business and major Conservative donor, should return the grant. The company's closure had left former workers and suppliers reporting unpaid bills, while the council was trying to recover the money. Chernukhin said she had not been involved in the grant application. Dollimore generated national attention, but there was no verified recovery of the money by July 2026.

Her record points to a politician most comfortable with visible local campaigns: polluted water, broken infrastructure, neglected public spaces and questionable use of regeneration money. She is prepared to name companies and wealthy individuals, but has remained closely tied to the Labour government whose policies she promotes.

The evidence of capability is promising but limited. Dollimore helped direct public investment towards playgrounds and gave Hastings a louder voice in the argument over water regulation. Against that, Southern Water remained able to reward its leadership, the Owens money had not been recovered and her principal capital project had not been completed. Her record shows an effective campaigner with access to government, but not yet an independently powerful legislator or a politician with a substantial body of finished work.