Post by John Chanin on Apr 22, 2020 11:18:22 GMT
Birmingham has very large wards -until recently 40 of them, all with electorates over 15,000. Between 1983 and 1997 it had 12 seats, which given that the Boundary Commission will not split wards meant that 4 of them were oversized. Between 1997 and 2010 there were 11 seats, which meant conversely that 4 seats were significantly undersized. The old Hall Green seat was one of them. In 2010 the reduction to 10 seats meant that all seats could be of even size - 4 wards each - and this required substantial change in east and south Birmingham where the small seats had been located. Most of the old Hall Green seat was moved to Selly Oak, leaving just the Hall Green ward to be joined with territory to the north. Perversely the Boundary Commission named the new seat “Hall Green” thus causing much confusion to observers from outside Birmingham. This seat bears no relation, socially or politically, to the one that existed previously. It extends from the city boundary in the south all the way to the inner ring road on the edge of the city centre.
Hall Green adjoins the Shirley area of Solihull and the boundary is invisible on the ground except that the street signs turn green. The west boundary with Billesley is along the river Cole, which runs through the constituency in a deep valley. This is a pleasant suburban area of semi-detached houses, tree-lined and almost entirely owner-occupied, and still predominantly white. Towards the north there is older pre-war housing, with a growing Muslim population. This is still a middle-class owner-occupied area, but increasingly for Muslim families made good. Politically the Hall Green area was long the only area where there was direct competition between Conservative and Liberal Democrat, but Labour came from third place to take the old ward in 2011. The new South ward is comfortably Conservative, while the North is safely Labour.
North of Hall Green is Sparkhill, and here you are entering the huge Muslim district of east Birmingham where over two-thirds of the population is Muslim, mostly of Pakistani/Kashmiri origin. It is mostly an area of small terraced houses, predominantly owner-occupied but with significant private renting. However the “hill” part, west of the river Cole rising up towards Moseley, has some large Victorian and Edwardian houses, and this was the first area that Muslim middle class families expanded into from the original settlement area. Down alongside the river Cole is Moseley Bog, which reputedly inspired Tolkien who came from around here, and Birmingham Council has named the riverside walk the Shire Country Park. Travelling further up the Stratford Road to its boundary with the Warwick Road you come to Sparkbrook, one of the centres of Muslim settlement. This sits to the west of the industrial corridor formed by the Grand Union canal and the Chiltern railway line, which is a major barrier in this part of the city. The area consists of a lot of small terraced housing, mostly quite old, and a lot of it in poor condition. The old Sparkbrook ward was the most deprived in the city - the area is miserably poor and run down with high levels of unemployment. The cheap rented housing close to the city centre means there has been an influx of eastern Europeans to the area, and there is also a substantial arab community, and some Somalis. The old ward was only 12% white, and was the centre of the strong Respect vote in the last decade. West of Sparkbrook is Balsall Heath, with the nicest of the Muslim shopping centres at Ladypool Road, with its Balti restaurants, fried chicken shops, sweet shops, Asian supermarkets, and bridal shops. Familiar high street chains are notable by their absence in all these shopping centres. Towards Edgbaston there is extensive modern social housing, mostly low-rise, and a rundown high street along the Moseley Road, which includes the listed Moseley Road Baths.
Up the hill to the south the seat is different again. Moseley is part of the old middle-class section of Birmingham, built on the hills to the south of the city. It is full of terraced Victorian houses, mostly owner-occupied, but with growing private renting. There is little social housing here. Down towards the river Rea, which forms the western edge of the seat, is more modern housing, surrounding Cannon Hill, Highbury, and Moseley parks, all of which were originally the private grounds of mansions, including Joseph Chamberlain’s house at Highbury Hall. Moseley “village” is an entertainment area with many bars, restaurants, and coffee bars. This is an expensive up market area, with high managerial occupations, and expensive housing, and the most heavily “remain” area of a very split city, as it is well-educated public sector middle-class, rather different from the equally well off outer suburbs. To the north Moseley slopes down the hill to Balsall Heath, with the Muslim population rising as the elevation falls. To the south the seat anomalously includes the area around Kings Heath High Street - a main shopping centre for south Birmingham, with smaller houses, but demographically increasingly resembling Moseley. The Liberal Democrats held this ward, always narrowly, from the Iraq war to the coalition, and won one of the two councillors here at the 2022 elections.
Overall this is one of three seats in Britain with a Muslim majority, and its interesting recent political history reflects this. At the first election for the new seat in 2010, longstanding Labour MP Roger Godsiff, first elected for Small Heath in 1992 (a seat that contained virtually no part of the present seat), faced a serious challenge from Salma Yaqoob of Respect. While this faded in 2015, it is fair to say that Godsiff was not wholly popular locally, either in the white middle-class part of the seat, or the Muslim working-class part, where there are political differences both between Kashmiris and Punjabis, and a cohort of noisy fundamentalists. The latter made national news recently with their demonstrations outside Anderton Park School in this constituency. The reselection process was well under way when the 2019 election was called, Godsiff having lost the trigger vote in all wards. The Labour National Executive made the sensible decision to deselect Godsiff, and nominated local Kashmiri councillor Tahir Ali as the candidate, and now the new MP. Godsiff stood as an independent and managed a surprising 8% of the vote. Both parts of the constituency voted Remain at the 2016 referendum, with the highest percentage in the Midlands at 66%, and in normal circumstances this is a very safe Labour seat.
Although Birmingham wards are still large, the reduction in size in the middle of the last decade makes the Boundary Commission’s job much easier in creating sensible constituencies without crossing ward boundaries. However although there are many ways of dividing Birmingham, the Commission has chosen to adhere as closely as possible to the existing pattern of seats, splitting wards in order to do so. At the last local boundary review Kings Heath was reunited in one ward, as requested by residents. However the Boundary Commission has made the strange decision to split this ward more or less along the old boundary, leaving Kings Heath divided between two seats. Elsewhere the west side of Balsall Heath has been moved to the Ladywood seat, and there has been a tidy up of boundaries in the Sparkbrook area. The seat will be slightly smaller and slightly less muslim, but this will have no political effect.
Census data: owner-occupied 59% (446/573 in England & Wales), private rented 22% (93rd), social rented 18% (217th).
:White 36%, Black 6%, Sth Asian 45%, Mixed 4%, Other 10%
: Managerial & professional 36% (262nd), Routine & Semi-routine 31% (251st)
: Degree 27% (250th), Minimal qualifications 41% (171st)
: Students 8% (98th), Over 65: 11% (515th)
: Muslim 43% (3rd)
Hall Green adjoins the Shirley area of Solihull and the boundary is invisible on the ground except that the street signs turn green. The west boundary with Billesley is along the river Cole, which runs through the constituency in a deep valley. This is a pleasant suburban area of semi-detached houses, tree-lined and almost entirely owner-occupied, and still predominantly white. Towards the north there is older pre-war housing, with a growing Muslim population. This is still a middle-class owner-occupied area, but increasingly for Muslim families made good. Politically the Hall Green area was long the only area where there was direct competition between Conservative and Liberal Democrat, but Labour came from third place to take the old ward in 2011. The new South ward is comfortably Conservative, while the North is safely Labour.
North of Hall Green is Sparkhill, and here you are entering the huge Muslim district of east Birmingham where over two-thirds of the population is Muslim, mostly of Pakistani/Kashmiri origin. It is mostly an area of small terraced houses, predominantly owner-occupied but with significant private renting. However the “hill” part, west of the river Cole rising up towards Moseley, has some large Victorian and Edwardian houses, and this was the first area that Muslim middle class families expanded into from the original settlement area. Down alongside the river Cole is Moseley Bog, which reputedly inspired Tolkien who came from around here, and Birmingham Council has named the riverside walk the Shire Country Park. Travelling further up the Stratford Road to its boundary with the Warwick Road you come to Sparkbrook, one of the centres of Muslim settlement. This sits to the west of the industrial corridor formed by the Grand Union canal and the Chiltern railway line, which is a major barrier in this part of the city. The area consists of a lot of small terraced housing, mostly quite old, and a lot of it in poor condition. The old Sparkbrook ward was the most deprived in the city - the area is miserably poor and run down with high levels of unemployment. The cheap rented housing close to the city centre means there has been an influx of eastern Europeans to the area, and there is also a substantial arab community, and some Somalis. The old ward was only 12% white, and was the centre of the strong Respect vote in the last decade. West of Sparkbrook is Balsall Heath, with the nicest of the Muslim shopping centres at Ladypool Road, with its Balti restaurants, fried chicken shops, sweet shops, Asian supermarkets, and bridal shops. Familiar high street chains are notable by their absence in all these shopping centres. Towards Edgbaston there is extensive modern social housing, mostly low-rise, and a rundown high street along the Moseley Road, which includes the listed Moseley Road Baths.
Up the hill to the south the seat is different again. Moseley is part of the old middle-class section of Birmingham, built on the hills to the south of the city. It is full of terraced Victorian houses, mostly owner-occupied, but with growing private renting. There is little social housing here. Down towards the river Rea, which forms the western edge of the seat, is more modern housing, surrounding Cannon Hill, Highbury, and Moseley parks, all of which were originally the private grounds of mansions, including Joseph Chamberlain’s house at Highbury Hall. Moseley “village” is an entertainment area with many bars, restaurants, and coffee bars. This is an expensive up market area, with high managerial occupations, and expensive housing, and the most heavily “remain” area of a very split city, as it is well-educated public sector middle-class, rather different from the equally well off outer suburbs. To the north Moseley slopes down the hill to Balsall Heath, with the Muslim population rising as the elevation falls. To the south the seat anomalously includes the area around Kings Heath High Street - a main shopping centre for south Birmingham, with smaller houses, but demographically increasingly resembling Moseley. The Liberal Democrats held this ward, always narrowly, from the Iraq war to the coalition, and won one of the two councillors here at the 2022 elections.
Overall this is one of three seats in Britain with a Muslim majority, and its interesting recent political history reflects this. At the first election for the new seat in 2010, longstanding Labour MP Roger Godsiff, first elected for Small Heath in 1992 (a seat that contained virtually no part of the present seat), faced a serious challenge from Salma Yaqoob of Respect. While this faded in 2015, it is fair to say that Godsiff was not wholly popular locally, either in the white middle-class part of the seat, or the Muslim working-class part, where there are political differences both between Kashmiris and Punjabis, and a cohort of noisy fundamentalists. The latter made national news recently with their demonstrations outside Anderton Park School in this constituency. The reselection process was well under way when the 2019 election was called, Godsiff having lost the trigger vote in all wards. The Labour National Executive made the sensible decision to deselect Godsiff, and nominated local Kashmiri councillor Tahir Ali as the candidate, and now the new MP. Godsiff stood as an independent and managed a surprising 8% of the vote. Both parts of the constituency voted Remain at the 2016 referendum, with the highest percentage in the Midlands at 66%, and in normal circumstances this is a very safe Labour seat.
Although Birmingham wards are still large, the reduction in size in the middle of the last decade makes the Boundary Commission’s job much easier in creating sensible constituencies without crossing ward boundaries. However although there are many ways of dividing Birmingham, the Commission has chosen to adhere as closely as possible to the existing pattern of seats, splitting wards in order to do so. At the last local boundary review Kings Heath was reunited in one ward, as requested by residents. However the Boundary Commission has made the strange decision to split this ward more or less along the old boundary, leaving Kings Heath divided between two seats. Elsewhere the west side of Balsall Heath has been moved to the Ladywood seat, and there has been a tidy up of boundaries in the Sparkbrook area. The seat will be slightly smaller and slightly less muslim, but this will have no political effect.
Census data: owner-occupied 59% (446/573 in England & Wales), private rented 22% (93rd), social rented 18% (217th).
:White 36%, Black 6%, Sth Asian 45%, Mixed 4%, Other 10%
: Managerial & professional 36% (262nd), Routine & Semi-routine 31% (251st)
: Degree 27% (250th), Minimal qualifications 41% (171st)
: Students 8% (98th), Over 65: 11% (515th)
: Muslim 43% (3rd)
2010 | % | 2015 | % | 2017 | % | 2019 | % | |
Labour | 16,039 | 32.9% | 28,147 | 59.8% | 42,143 | 77.6% | 35,889 | 67.8% |
Conservative | 7,320 | 15.0% | 8,329 | 17.7% | 8,199 | 15.1% | 7,381 | 13.9% |
Liberal Democrat | 11,988 | 24.6% | 5,459 | 11.6% | 3,137 | 5.8% | 3,673 | 6.9% |
UKIP/Brexit | 950 | 1.9% | 2,131 | 4.5% | 877 | 1.7% | ||
Green | 2,200 | 4.7% | 831 | 1.5% | 818 | 1.5% | ||
| Respect | 12,240 | 25.1% | 780 | 1.7% | ||||
Others | 190 | 0.4% | 4,273 | 8.1% | ||||
Majority | 3,799 | 7.8% | 19,818 | 42.1% | 33,944 | 62.5% | 28,508 | 53.9% |
