Post by John Chanin on Aug 7, 2023 14:08:33 GMT
This fascinating seat is generally considered to be the most polarized seat in the country, as well as one of the most strangely named. A little history is in order. In the 1970s the Heath government set out on a major reform of local government. One component of this was the creation of the metropolitan counties and districts. The districts were to have more powers than ordinary district councils, and to deliver most services run by counties elsewhere. To do this the government believed that they needed a minimum population of 200,000. This created a problem. The boroughs of Sutton Coldfield and Solihull were only half this size, but fiercely resistant to being incorporated into Birmingham, of which they are geographically part. Anyway it was felt that Birmingham was big enough already - perhaps too big. The solution they came up with was to add a mix of terrritory between Birmingham and Coventry, mostly covered by the Meriden Rural District, to Solihull Borough. The numbers were further topped up by the incorporation of the Solihull Rural District to the south. The Boundary Commission, in its glacial way, caught up in 1983. The new Solihull borough had the right electorate for two seats. It made no sense to split the old borough which formed exactly the right size for a seat, so all the rest was put together to form the Meriden seat. There was a previous seat of the same name, named after the rural district, so the Boundary Commission chose to continue with the name, while the northern half of the old Meriden seat became the base for the new North Warwickshire seat, outside the boundaries of the metropolitan county. This seat, which was unchanged from 1983 to now, is therefore a classic bits left over seat.
However at this boundary review considerable changes are coming. Solihull borough as a whole is now too big for two seats on its own, so two wards have to be moved out. The obvious one is Castle Bromwich, and indeed this is to be moved to a Birmingham seat. Moving Meriden or Blythe wards to Warwickshire would enable the Warwickshire seats to match local government boundaries. Moving one or two Shirley wards into Birmingham would be less disruptive, as the junction with Hall Green is seamless. So what have they actually done? They have added rural Blythe ward to the Solihull seat, with which it has little in common, and ripped the heart out of Solihull itself, transferring part of the town centre and Elmdon to the north into this seat. And then to get the seat down to size they have split the Chelmsley Wood estate, with the north part added to Hodge Hill in Birmingham. The seat will now make even less sense than it did already. Overall the changes will increase the middle class part of the seat, and reduce the working class section, but it was very safely Conservative already.
The seat can be divided into 4 parts. 20,000 voters come from the commuter villages between Birmingham and Coventry - Bickenhill, Catherine de Barnes, Hampton-in-Arden, Balsall Common, and Meriden itself right in the far north-east corner of the seat and surrounded by golf courses. Balsall Common and Hampton-in-Arden are on the West Coast main line, where frequent commuter trains run between Birmingham and Coventry. In addition although most of the commuter villages south of Solihull town have been moved into the Solihull seat, the large village of Hockley Heath on the A34 road and the Stratford canal, is still in the seat, forming an isolated salient that really ought to be in Warwickshire. Like all commuter villages these have high educational and occupational qualifications, and are deeply Conservative. Secondly there is the small town of Knowle-Dorridge, separated from Solihull town by the M42. Knowle is the old part, close to the Grand Union canal, with a quaint high street. Dorridge is the modern part to the west, terminus of the commuter trains that run into the city on the Chiltern Line, Birmingham’s back door to London. Although there is modern and modest housing close to the station, much of Dorridge is one of the richest areas in the west Midlands, with large gated houses. Its overall demography and Conservative voting pattern is no different from the villages. Overall these two sections account for just under half the seat.
The third section, newly brought in from Solihull, is 19,000 voters from the urban area of Solihull proper. In the north is Elmdon, adjoining the Yardley seat of Birmingham. Elmdon contains incongruously a large Land Rover plant, with Elmdon Park to the north, once the grounds of a manor house. At the east end of the car plant is the new ground of Solihull Moors football club, Birmingham’s premier non-league club, who play in the National League. Elmdon is a Liberal Democrat stronghold in local elections. South of Elmdon is Silhill ward, the northern side of Solihull town centre, containing Solihull hospital and a number of private schools, but not the shopping centre or the Council House, which remain in Solihull constituency. This is an up market residential area, with demography (and voting habits) not much lower than the commuter villages. The constituency name has been expanded to recognise this section.
The remaining section, some 20,000 voters, is a very different world. It consists of the giant Chelmsley Wood estate, built by Birmingham City Council in the 1960s on land immediately adjacent to, but outside the city boundary. The estate was built in four sections, each of which originally had its own ward on Solihull council - from the north Smiths Wood, Kingshurst, Fordbridge, and Chelmsley Wood itself. The river Cole runs through the middle. It originally housed some 50,000 people in 15,000 dwellings, which made it not just the largest estate in Birmingham but one of the largest ever built in the whole country. Having been inherited by the new Solihull council, the houses were forcibly transferred to their ownership by the Thatcher government, and Solihull has set up a Management Organization to run the estate (and other council housing in the borough although there is precious little of it). There is an interesting book by journalist Lynsey Hanley about growing up on the estate. Unfortunately like many similar estates there has been a spiral of decline, with high levels of crime and anti-social behaviour, and low levels of maintenance. The central shopping centre is a disaster area. Communications with Birmingham are poor, and with Solihull non-existent. Socially it is the exact opposite of the rest of Solihull. Less than 25% have managerial jobs, and more than 45% routine jobs. Unemployment and deprivation is high. 40% of the homes are still rented from the council despite 40 years of right to buy. It is however as white as the rest of Solihull. The population has dropped substantially as the young families have grown up and moved out, and the estate was cut to 3 and a bit wards after the last boundary review. The “bit” forms part of one of the most ridiculous wards in the country. As well as the southern end of the estate it contains the old commuter village of Marston Green, engulfed by Birmingham’s peripheral estates, and to the south Birmingham airport, the National Exhibition Centre and the Birmingham Business Park where no-one lives. The ward then continues a long way south through commuter villages and countryside. Discounting the M42 there is only one road connecting the two parts, snaking in between the NEC and the airport. Politically the estate was once very Labour, although unenthusiastic with persistently low turnouts. The increasingly alienated tenants, distant from, and ignored by Solihull Council, turned first to the BNP, and then surprisingly to the Greens, who held off a big challenge from UKIP in the middle of the last decade. There can’t have been many wards in the country where the contest was between these two parties. With the collapse of UKIP the Greens now hold all three estate wards on Solihull Council. However in the boundary changes the estate has been split, and the northern Smiths Wood ward has been transferred into a Birmingham constituency.
Despite the varied and interesting nature of the constituency, politically at national level it is very dull. It is a safe Conservative seat, as even in 1997 the commuter villages and suburbs outvoted the estate. The new MP is Saqib Bhatti, an accountant of Pakistani descent, who succeeded former minister Caroline Spelman in 2019.
Census data: Owner-occupied 69% (195/575 in England & Wales), private rented 13% (513th), social rented 17% (215th).
: White 86%(352nd), Black 2%(244th), South Asian 6%(165th), Mixed 4%(150th), Other 3%(280th)
: Managerial & professional 44% (146th), Routine & Semi-routine 25% (372nd)
: Degree 35% (214th), Minimal qualifications 28% (287th)
: Students 6% (274th), Over 65: 21.5% (231st)
Boundaries: The new seat is made up of 75% from Meriden and 25% from Solihull.
66% of the old Meriden seat is in the new one, with 21% going to Hodge Hill & Solihull N, and 13% to Solihull W & Shirley.
However at this boundary review considerable changes are coming. Solihull borough as a whole is now too big for two seats on its own, so two wards have to be moved out. The obvious one is Castle Bromwich, and indeed this is to be moved to a Birmingham seat. Moving Meriden or Blythe wards to Warwickshire would enable the Warwickshire seats to match local government boundaries. Moving one or two Shirley wards into Birmingham would be less disruptive, as the junction with Hall Green is seamless. So what have they actually done? They have added rural Blythe ward to the Solihull seat, with which it has little in common, and ripped the heart out of Solihull itself, transferring part of the town centre and Elmdon to the north into this seat. And then to get the seat down to size they have split the Chelmsley Wood estate, with the north part added to Hodge Hill in Birmingham. The seat will now make even less sense than it did already. Overall the changes will increase the middle class part of the seat, and reduce the working class section, but it was very safely Conservative already.
The seat can be divided into 4 parts. 20,000 voters come from the commuter villages between Birmingham and Coventry - Bickenhill, Catherine de Barnes, Hampton-in-Arden, Balsall Common, and Meriden itself right in the far north-east corner of the seat and surrounded by golf courses. Balsall Common and Hampton-in-Arden are on the West Coast main line, where frequent commuter trains run between Birmingham and Coventry. In addition although most of the commuter villages south of Solihull town have been moved into the Solihull seat, the large village of Hockley Heath on the A34 road and the Stratford canal, is still in the seat, forming an isolated salient that really ought to be in Warwickshire. Like all commuter villages these have high educational and occupational qualifications, and are deeply Conservative. Secondly there is the small town of Knowle-Dorridge, separated from Solihull town by the M42. Knowle is the old part, close to the Grand Union canal, with a quaint high street. Dorridge is the modern part to the west, terminus of the commuter trains that run into the city on the Chiltern Line, Birmingham’s back door to London. Although there is modern and modest housing close to the station, much of Dorridge is one of the richest areas in the west Midlands, with large gated houses. Its overall demography and Conservative voting pattern is no different from the villages. Overall these two sections account for just under half the seat.
The third section, newly brought in from Solihull, is 19,000 voters from the urban area of Solihull proper. In the north is Elmdon, adjoining the Yardley seat of Birmingham. Elmdon contains incongruously a large Land Rover plant, with Elmdon Park to the north, once the grounds of a manor house. At the east end of the car plant is the new ground of Solihull Moors football club, Birmingham’s premier non-league club, who play in the National League. Elmdon is a Liberal Democrat stronghold in local elections. South of Elmdon is Silhill ward, the northern side of Solihull town centre, containing Solihull hospital and a number of private schools, but not the shopping centre or the Council House, which remain in Solihull constituency. This is an up market residential area, with demography (and voting habits) not much lower than the commuter villages. The constituency name has been expanded to recognise this section.
The remaining section, some 20,000 voters, is a very different world. It consists of the giant Chelmsley Wood estate, built by Birmingham City Council in the 1960s on land immediately adjacent to, but outside the city boundary. The estate was built in four sections, each of which originally had its own ward on Solihull council - from the north Smiths Wood, Kingshurst, Fordbridge, and Chelmsley Wood itself. The river Cole runs through the middle. It originally housed some 50,000 people in 15,000 dwellings, which made it not just the largest estate in Birmingham but one of the largest ever built in the whole country. Having been inherited by the new Solihull council, the houses were forcibly transferred to their ownership by the Thatcher government, and Solihull has set up a Management Organization to run the estate (and other council housing in the borough although there is precious little of it). There is an interesting book by journalist Lynsey Hanley about growing up on the estate. Unfortunately like many similar estates there has been a spiral of decline, with high levels of crime and anti-social behaviour, and low levels of maintenance. The central shopping centre is a disaster area. Communications with Birmingham are poor, and with Solihull non-existent. Socially it is the exact opposite of the rest of Solihull. Less than 25% have managerial jobs, and more than 45% routine jobs. Unemployment and deprivation is high. 40% of the homes are still rented from the council despite 40 years of right to buy. It is however as white as the rest of Solihull. The population has dropped substantially as the young families have grown up and moved out, and the estate was cut to 3 and a bit wards after the last boundary review. The “bit” forms part of one of the most ridiculous wards in the country. As well as the southern end of the estate it contains the old commuter village of Marston Green, engulfed by Birmingham’s peripheral estates, and to the south Birmingham airport, the National Exhibition Centre and the Birmingham Business Park where no-one lives. The ward then continues a long way south through commuter villages and countryside. Discounting the M42 there is only one road connecting the two parts, snaking in between the NEC and the airport. Politically the estate was once very Labour, although unenthusiastic with persistently low turnouts. The increasingly alienated tenants, distant from, and ignored by Solihull Council, turned first to the BNP, and then surprisingly to the Greens, who held off a big challenge from UKIP in the middle of the last decade. There can’t have been many wards in the country where the contest was between these two parties. With the collapse of UKIP the Greens now hold all three estate wards on Solihull Council. However in the boundary changes the estate has been split, and the northern Smiths Wood ward has been transferred into a Birmingham constituency.
Despite the varied and interesting nature of the constituency, politically at national level it is very dull. It is a safe Conservative seat, as even in 1997 the commuter villages and suburbs outvoted the estate. The new MP is Saqib Bhatti, an accountant of Pakistani descent, who succeeded former minister Caroline Spelman in 2019.
Census data: Owner-occupied 69% (195/575 in England & Wales), private rented 13% (513th), social rented 17% (215th).
: White 86%(352nd), Black 2%(244th), South Asian 6%(165th), Mixed 4%(150th), Other 3%(280th)
: Managerial & professional 44% (146th), Routine & Semi-routine 25% (372nd)
: Degree 35% (214th), Minimal qualifications 28% (287th)
: Students 6% (274th), Over 65: 21.5% (231st)
Boundaries: The new seat is made up of 75% from Meriden and 25% from Solihull.
66% of the old Meriden seat is in the new one, with 21% going to Hodge Hill & Solihull N, and 13% to Solihull W & Shirley.
2017 | % | 2019 | % | Notional | % | |
Conservative | 33,873 | 62.0 | 34,358 | 63.4 | 30,438 | 62.4 |
Labour | 14.675 | 26.9 | 11,522 | 21.3 | 10,168 | 20.9 |
Liberal Democrat | 2,663 | 4.9 | 5,614 | 10.4 | 6,613 | 13.6 |
UKIP | 2,016 | 3.7 | ||||
Green | 1,416 | 2.6 | 2,667 | 4.9 | 1,559 | 3.2 |
| Majority | 19,198 | 35.1 | 22,836 | 42.2 | 20,270 | 41.6 |
