SOUTHAMPTON has regained its unenviable title of teen pregnancy capital of the south – with new figures showing almost 200 under-18s fell pregnant in the city in a single year.

Government figures revealed that teen pregnancies among 15 to 17-year-olds rose from 185 in 2007 to 197 in 2008, despite hundreds of thousands of pounds of public money.

The so-called “rate” of pregnancies in Southampton increased from 49 per 1,000 teenage girls to 51.4 per 1,000 despite the number of cases falling nationally over the same period.

The city leapfrogged Portsmouth and Reading – both of which had worse teen pregnancy rates than Southampton in 2007.

Romsey MP Sandra Gidley said the figures showed the need for a “comprehensive review” of the city’s sexual health services.

Local health bosses claimed the city was still “heading in the right direction”

with its teenage pregnancy strategy, which included help for secondary schools to improve their sex and relationship education and weekly drop-in sessions in each of the city’s three colleges and eight secondary schools to provide young people with clinical advice and support.

A spokesman for NHS Southampton City said £220,000 had been spent on tackling teenage pregnancy in the city since 2008.

The funding, from the primary care trust, city council and central Government, came on top of the “larger budget” spent on general sexual health services in Southampton.

Dr Andrew Mortimore, public health director of NHS Southampton City, said that, while he was disappointed by the most recent figures, they showed that teen pregnancy rates had still fallen by more than 15 per cent since 1998.

He said: “Initiatives introduced for Southampton in the past year are expected to build on good practice now established in the city, and to start making a long-term difference to teenage pregnancy rates in the city.

“Overall, we feel we are heading in the right direction with our teenage pregnancy strategy. However, we appreciate that there is still much more work to do.”

However, Mrs Gidley, Liberal Democrat health spokeswoman, said: “These scandalously high figures will only cement Southampton’s reputation as the teenage pregnancy capital of the south.

“We need to teach children in Southampton about friendships, family and peer relationships so they can translate good relationship skills to their relationships as young people and adults.

Put simply, when children get to secondary school, they need to know about sex.

“It is time that we had a comprehensive review of the city’s sexual health services.

I will be writing to the local primary care trust to push for this immediately.”