Post by John Chanin on Aug 5, 2023 11:28:43 GMT
This is Birmingham’s city centre seat, and like most city centres it is cosmopolitan. Unlike most present day cities and large towns, Birmingham was not an important mediaeval town. It grew from a small settlement by a ford over the river Rea with the coming of the industrial revolution. The core of the town spread up the steep hill from the river Rea, to the ridge where the 18th century St Philip’s cathedral, the Town Hall, and the Council House now stand. Halfway up the hill was the market known as the Bull Ring - now there is a huge shopping centre of regional importance there, opened in 2003. Birmingham became a major centre of metalworking and light industry, and a ring of factories and warehouses grew up round the commercial centre. However the postwar decline of industry led to this becoming a ring of dereliction, reinforced by the building of the elevated concrete inner ring road, cutting the city centre off from its hinterland. Meanwhile the rookeries and slums of central Birmingham were cleared in the 1950s and 1960s and the inhabitants rehoused in a string of peripheral estates built on the borders of the city. The original Ladywood parliamentary seat, roughly the size of the current Ladywood ward had declined to an electorate of less than 20,000 by 1970. By the 1980s the city was sadly rundown and very empty. Times have changed. Over the last 25 years there has been a revival. The inner ring road has been largely demolished, the canals that riddle the area have been opened up, the warehouses cleared, and dozens of modern flat blocks built. To the west of the shopping centre is the large complex containing the new Central Library, the Rep theatre, the Symphony Hall, the ICC Conference centre which hosts political party conferences amongst other things, and set back a little, the National Indoor Arena. Broad Street on Friday and Saturday nights is full of scantily dressed young women, and is the same sort of unsophisticated entertainment centre found in all provincial cities. Meanwhile the ring of dereliction is slowly being redeveloped, although there is still some way to go. The Jewellery Quarter to the north has become a very smart residential area, with multiple bars and restaurants. To the east is the campus of Aston University and the new headquarters of Birmingham City University, and much student housing is being built here. The council has grand plans to open up the river Rea as it flows through Digbeth in a culvert, with a large residential development, and there is another huge development site just to the south of the Bull Ring where Birmingham’s wholesale markets used to be. Also to the east is the Curzon Street station - to be the terminus for HS2 - with the Thinktank science museum alongside, and more plans for development of the semi-derelict industrial area around the station. To the south, next to the Chinese quarter is the gay village, and the Southside residential development, and to the west is more new private development, concentrated alongside the canals that thread the city centre to the Gas Street basin. As well as the new private flats, quite a lot of which are rented, many apparently to students, following purchase by speculators, rather than owner-occupied as the developers no doubt hoped, the city centre contains an incongruous council tower block estate right in the centre next to the NIA. Also inside the inner ring road is Lee Bank, with its blocks of ex-council flats, now managed by the Optima co-op.
Birmingham’s parliamentary constituencies radiate out from the centre, and inevitably Ladywood, as the central seat, changes its boundaries regularly as the population shifts. The Boundary Commission has been keen to minimise changes in Birmingham, but this will be one of the most changed seats. Aston is to be moved out to the Perry Barr seat, and realignment to new ward boundaries loses 7000 voters in the Rotton Park and Winson Green areas, and a further 3000 on the edges of Handsworth. In total some 22,000 voters will be moved out of the seat. In exchange it will gain territory to the east on the other side of the Rea valley . 17,500 solidly muslim electors in Saltley, Washwood Heath and Alum Rock come in from the Hodge Hill seat, plus 7000 more predominantly muslim electors in the west side of Balsall Heath from the Hall Green seat. Although Aston is also predominantly muslim, these changes will make this close to a muslim majority seat - indeed the third highest muslim percentage in the country, just behind Birmingham Hall Green. This will not affect its ultra-safe Labour status, unless there is a reaction among muslim voters like that following the Iraq war.
The constituency spreads out more widely into the inner city. West of the centre is Ladywood proper, on both sides of the western ring road, where the housing is modern low-rise council development, with a few older terraces to the east of the reservoir. The council has a grandiose regeneration plan for this area, which is generally poor. South of the centre is Highgate. There are a few old Georgian houses surviving but this is mostly council estate, or development sites resulting from the demolition of tower blocks alongside the Belgrave Middleway (the southern ring road). The Birmingham Central Mosque is here. To the east and outside the ring road is Bordesley which climbs up the steep slopes of the Rea Valley through the modern low-rise St Andrews council estate to the Birmingham City football ground perched on top of the hill. At Garrison Circus on the ring road is the real Peaky Blinders pub, the Garrison (now closed). North-east is Nechells, sandwiched between the Aston Expressway (the M6 spur into the city centre) and the river Rea whose valley is lined with industrial estates, and alongside which the main railway line to the East Midlands runs. The centre of Nechells is mainly modern low-rise council housing, with older post-war blocks, including brick towers, closer to the centre at Duddeston, and concrete point tower blocks overlooking Spaghetti Junction at the north end of the ward which is bounded by the M6. North is Newtown, running from the inner city at St Chads cathedral, across the ring road alongside which there are a series of council tower blocks, and modern low-rise council housing further north. Newtown has the highest percentage of social housing tenants in the city (65%), and also the highest black population (46%). North-west is Winson Green, with its well-known prison and the City Hospital, although most of Winson Green has been moved to Edgbaston. Further out is Soho, which consists mostly of small terraced housing built for the working classes around 1900. Soho House, the mansion of Matthew Boulton, the famous engineer formerly celebrated on the £50 note, is here, just south of Soho Road.
Newly arrived from Hodge Hill is the core muslim settlement area of east Birmingham. The western end of Small Heath, and a small area around Adderley Park were already in the Ladywood seat, but now Alum Rock and Bordesley Green wards have been added, both of which (and Small Heath) are over 80% muslim, with a white population of less than 10%. This part of Birmingham, split between Ladywood, Hodge Hill, and Yardley seats is probably the most concentrated Muslim settlement in the country - mostly Kashmiri and Pakistani. This was one of the core early areas of settlement as people came to work in the extensive industrial area in the Rea valley and alongside the main line railway to Nottingham in the north. Almost the whole area is covered by small terraced housing, mostly owner-occupied, although some of the old houses have been renovated by housing associations. Deprivation is high in these solidly working class wards, where a majority of people have little or no qualifications.
Also coming in from Hall Green is the west half of Balsall Heath. This is also predominantly muslim, but has more variety. To the east of the river Rea there is extensive modern social housing, mostly low-rise, and the centre of Balsall Heath contains a rundown high street along the Moseley Road, which includes the listed white elephant of Moseley Road Baths, and is surrounded by poor quality terraced housing. The ward runs along the north side of Edgbaston cricket ground, where there is some smart new development, and extends across the river Rea to include private modern development between the Bristol Road and the river, which is mainly white. The ward is 6th most deprived in the city, and mostly solidly working class.
The whole of this area is solidly Labour. Owner-occupation is the 11th lowest in the country, and the percentage of white residents is the 5th lowest. There is a large black population - partly long settled and of Caribbean descent, but now outnumbered by more recent African arrivals, particularly in the Winson Green/Soho/Newtown area. The seat contains Birmingham’s Chinese district. It has the highest percentage of social housing outside London - there has been little right to buy in the central city, where the property is mostly flats, very different from the peripheral estates. There are many students from all over the world, and the city centre flats are very cosmopolitan. Managerial occupations are high as you would expect in the city centre, but the rest of the seat is very working class. Also of note is that it is has the 4th lowest proportion of over 65s. Nationally, despite changes in boundaries over the years, it has remained safe for Labour. At the 2019 election it was the 7th safest Labour seat in the country. The current MP is Shabana Mahmood, first elected in 2010 in succession to Claire Short, a lawyer and one of three Birmingham MPs of Kashmiri descent. She is a member of the shadow cabinet and Labour’s campaign co-ordinator.
Census data: Owner-occupied 28% (565/575 in England & Wales), private rented 37% (22nd), social rented 36% (12th).
: White 22%(571st), Black 24%(9th), South Asian 34%(19th), Mixed 5%(76th), Other 15%(21st)
: Managerial & professional 33% (418th), Routine & Semi-routine 38% (57th)
: Degree 32% (297th), Minimal qualifications 34% (84th)
: Students 23% (15th), Over 65: 6% (572nd)
: Muslim 49% (3rd)
Boundaries: The new seat is made up of 67% from Ladywood, 23% from Hodge Hill, 8% from Hall Green, and 1% from Edgbaston.
70% of the old Ladywood seat is in the new one, with 21% going to Perry Barr, and 9% to Edgbaston.
Birmingham’s parliamentary constituencies radiate out from the centre, and inevitably Ladywood, as the central seat, changes its boundaries regularly as the population shifts. The Boundary Commission has been keen to minimise changes in Birmingham, but this will be one of the most changed seats. Aston is to be moved out to the Perry Barr seat, and realignment to new ward boundaries loses 7000 voters in the Rotton Park and Winson Green areas, and a further 3000 on the edges of Handsworth. In total some 22,000 voters will be moved out of the seat. In exchange it will gain territory to the east on the other side of the Rea valley . 17,500 solidly muslim electors in Saltley, Washwood Heath and Alum Rock come in from the Hodge Hill seat, plus 7000 more predominantly muslim electors in the west side of Balsall Heath from the Hall Green seat. Although Aston is also predominantly muslim, these changes will make this close to a muslim majority seat - indeed the third highest muslim percentage in the country, just behind Birmingham Hall Green. This will not affect its ultra-safe Labour status, unless there is a reaction among muslim voters like that following the Iraq war.
The constituency spreads out more widely into the inner city. West of the centre is Ladywood proper, on both sides of the western ring road, where the housing is modern low-rise council development, with a few older terraces to the east of the reservoir. The council has a grandiose regeneration plan for this area, which is generally poor. South of the centre is Highgate. There are a few old Georgian houses surviving but this is mostly council estate, or development sites resulting from the demolition of tower blocks alongside the Belgrave Middleway (the southern ring road). The Birmingham Central Mosque is here. To the east and outside the ring road is Bordesley which climbs up the steep slopes of the Rea Valley through the modern low-rise St Andrews council estate to the Birmingham City football ground perched on top of the hill. At Garrison Circus on the ring road is the real Peaky Blinders pub, the Garrison (now closed). North-east is Nechells, sandwiched between the Aston Expressway (the M6 spur into the city centre) and the river Rea whose valley is lined with industrial estates, and alongside which the main railway line to the East Midlands runs. The centre of Nechells is mainly modern low-rise council housing, with older post-war blocks, including brick towers, closer to the centre at Duddeston, and concrete point tower blocks overlooking Spaghetti Junction at the north end of the ward which is bounded by the M6. North is Newtown, running from the inner city at St Chads cathedral, across the ring road alongside which there are a series of council tower blocks, and modern low-rise council housing further north. Newtown has the highest percentage of social housing tenants in the city (65%), and also the highest black population (46%). North-west is Winson Green, with its well-known prison and the City Hospital, although most of Winson Green has been moved to Edgbaston. Further out is Soho, which consists mostly of small terraced housing built for the working classes around 1900. Soho House, the mansion of Matthew Boulton, the famous engineer formerly celebrated on the £50 note, is here, just south of Soho Road.
Newly arrived from Hodge Hill is the core muslim settlement area of east Birmingham. The western end of Small Heath, and a small area around Adderley Park were already in the Ladywood seat, but now Alum Rock and Bordesley Green wards have been added, both of which (and Small Heath) are over 80% muslim, with a white population of less than 10%. This part of Birmingham, split between Ladywood, Hodge Hill, and Yardley seats is probably the most concentrated Muslim settlement in the country - mostly Kashmiri and Pakistani. This was one of the core early areas of settlement as people came to work in the extensive industrial area in the Rea valley and alongside the main line railway to Nottingham in the north. Almost the whole area is covered by small terraced housing, mostly owner-occupied, although some of the old houses have been renovated by housing associations. Deprivation is high in these solidly working class wards, where a majority of people have little or no qualifications.
Also coming in from Hall Green is the west half of Balsall Heath. This is also predominantly muslim, but has more variety. To the east of the river Rea there is extensive modern social housing, mostly low-rise, and the centre of Balsall Heath contains a rundown high street along the Moseley Road, which includes the listed white elephant of Moseley Road Baths, and is surrounded by poor quality terraced housing. The ward runs along the north side of Edgbaston cricket ground, where there is some smart new development, and extends across the river Rea to include private modern development between the Bristol Road and the river, which is mainly white. The ward is 6th most deprived in the city, and mostly solidly working class.
The whole of this area is solidly Labour. Owner-occupation is the 11th lowest in the country, and the percentage of white residents is the 5th lowest. There is a large black population - partly long settled and of Caribbean descent, but now outnumbered by more recent African arrivals, particularly in the Winson Green/Soho/Newtown area. The seat contains Birmingham’s Chinese district. It has the highest percentage of social housing outside London - there has been little right to buy in the central city, where the property is mostly flats, very different from the peripheral estates. There are many students from all over the world, and the city centre flats are very cosmopolitan. Managerial occupations are high as you would expect in the city centre, but the rest of the seat is very working class. Also of note is that it is has the 4th lowest proportion of over 65s. Nationally, despite changes in boundaries over the years, it has remained safe for Labour. At the 2019 election it was the 7th safest Labour seat in the country. The current MP is Shabana Mahmood, first elected in 2010 in succession to Claire Short, a lawyer and one of three Birmingham MPs of Kashmiri descent. She is a member of the shadow cabinet and Labour’s campaign co-ordinator.
Census data: Owner-occupied 28% (565/575 in England & Wales), private rented 37% (22nd), social rented 36% (12th).
: White 22%(571st), Black 24%(9th), South Asian 34%(19th), Mixed 5%(76th), Other 15%(21st)
: Managerial & professional 33% (418th), Routine & Semi-routine 38% (57th)
: Degree 32% (297th), Minimal qualifications 34% (84th)
: Students 23% (15th), Over 65: 6% (572nd)
: Muslim 49% (3rd)
Boundaries: The new seat is made up of 67% from Ladywood, 23% from Hodge Hill, 8% from Hall Green, and 1% from Edgbaston.
70% of the old Ladywood seat is in the new one, with 21% going to Perry Barr, and 9% to Edgbaston.
2017 | % | 2019 | % | Notional | % | |
Labour | 34,166 | 82.7 | 33,355 | 79.2 | 36,964 | 83.0 |
Conservative | 5,452 | 13.2 | 4,773 | 11.3 | 4,381 | 9.8 |
Liberal Democrat | 1,156 | 2.8 | 2,228 | 5.3 | 1,233 | 2.8 |
Brexit | 831 | 2.0 | 980 | 2.2 | ||
Green | 533 | 1.3 | 931 | 2.2 | 823 | 1.9 |
Other | 154 | 0.4 | ||||
| Majority | 28,714 | 69.5 | 28,582 | 67.9 | 32,583 | 73.2 |
