Birmingham’s deprivation crisis

Dear readers — we hope you had a good weekend and that your Halloween was filled with far more treats than tricks.

This week, the numbers are in and it’s bad news for Birmingham: the latest government data has found our city has more deprived areas than anywhere else in the country, apart from Middlesbrough. We’ve unpacked the data and explained the most interesting findings — some of which are comforting, we promise — in the Big Story below.

Also today, a third woman has been the victim of a racially motivated attack in the West Midlands, and the government has concluded it will not open a public inquiry into the Birmingham Pub Bombings of 1974. 

Elsewhere, Kate and Samuel headed to the long-awaited reopening of The Anchor Digbeth on Thursday, rubbing shoulders with Brum royalty like Carl Chinn and UB40 — not that we like to name drop or anything. Read a round-up in today’s Brum in Brief.

Catch up and coming up:

• We tried out something different on the weekend. Did you catch it? Jack Walton explored the flagging phenomenon across our various Mill Media titles — from the Weoley Warriors and sex doll-selling salesmen in Birmingham to Hitler admiring activists in Glasgow. Read it here. 
• The Dispatch sent Dan Cave to North Birmingham. He spent a few days reporting on the suburb of Erdington, asking whether a mostly negative Telegraph article by Judith Woods on the area was accurate.
• Are you attending the Maccabi v Aston Villa match on Thursday? Or heading to the area to protest? Let us know what you are expecting at editor@birminghamdispatch.co.uk  

Photo of the week

Big Story: Birmingham’s deprivation crisis 

Top line: Birmingham is now, by some measures, the second most deprived local authority area in England, according to the latest — slightly painful — data.

Context: According to statistics published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), the UK’s second-largest city now also ranks second-highest for deprivation in the top 10% — narrowly beaten by Middlesbrough in the North-East of England. Specifically, Birmingham’s local authority contains the second largest number of very deprived neighbourhoods in England. The other top five spots for deprivation are filled by Hartlepool, Hull and Manchester respectively. However, this measure is biased towards local authorities with both large and poor populations — so high-deprivation in smaller councils will show up less in the rankings. The BBC has published a helpful guide to the data here. 

A segregated city? When you look at Birmingham's 2025 deprivation statistics one gets the impression of a divided city. Unlike London or Manchester which have wealthy inner suburbs and pockets of deprivation intermixed with each other, Birmingham is defined by a highly deprived inner ring of postcodes, concentrated wealth in Harborne, Edgbaston and Sutton Coldfield and poor estates on its outskirts. Birmingham also looks much more spatially segregated than the capital, with only a few economically mixed areas around Kings Heath and Moseley. 

 Getting worse: According to data released by the MHCLG, Birmingham, between 2004 and today, has moved from tenth to second place in terms of neighbourhoods in the most deprived 10% of the country. The city witnessed a rapid rate of change between 2019 and 2025, with Brum jumping from seventh to second place in six years, overtaking Hull, Manchester and Blackpool. 

Falling behind: During the same 2004-2025 window, Manchester has successfully managed to drop from the top spot to fifth. Between 2019 and 2025, Birmingham neighbourhoods within the top 10% most deprived saw a 0.2% increase, while Manchester’s total has fallen by -3.1%. 

Looking for work: According to the MHCLG report Birmingham also now has the highest number of ‘income-deprived’  and ‘employment-deprived’ people of any local authority in England. However, this data is somewhat skewed by the fact that Birmingham’s local authority is proportionately one of the largest in terms of population in the UK. We have previously published on Birmingham’s incredibly high ‘out of work’ rates in The Dispatch. 

Which areas are struggling the most? In reaction to the government’s new deprivation statistics, The Birmingham Mail has published a list of the most deprived postcodes in our city. At the top of the ranking is the south Birmingham estate of Druid’s Heath, closely followed by Frankley in the Southwest and Winson Green in the Northwest.  

Some hope: According to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), when all separate rankings in the 2025 indices of deprivation are averaged out, Birmingham's rank improves. In JRF's average Index of Multiple Deprivation, Birmingham comes eighth – up from sixth place in 2019. 

Bottom line: The years between 2019 and 2025 have seen average deprivation rates in Birmingham moderately improve, while the city’s poorest neighbourhoods have got much worse. In short, the city is polarising: with poverty concentrating in specific areas.   

Brum in Brief

⚖️The government has confirmed there will be no public inquiry into the Birmingham Pub Bombings, as the 51st anniversary of the atrocities approaches. Security minister Dan Jarvis announced last week that “after careful consideration”, ministers feel an existing investigation will be effective enough. The Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR) is a body established to look into the deaths of people during The Troubles and Jarvis said it is the government’s “firm belief” that it is well-placed to investigate the 1974 attacks. Responding to the news, long time campaigner Julie Hambleton, whose sister Maxine was one of 21 people to die on the night of the explosions in two city centre pubs, said: “It is as if they are quite literally spitting on the graves of our loved ones.” Read The Dispatch’s 50th anniversary article about the pub bombings here. (BBC).

🚨 A third woman has been the victim of a racially aggravated attack in the West Midlands in the past seven weeks, according to police. The authorities have put out an appeal for information after a group of four or five men, in their 20s, assaulted a woman in her 50s on Waddens Brook Lane in Wolverhampton last Monday evening. A handheld electrical stun device and a “metal bar” like weapon were used, according to the appeal. Preet Gill, the Labour MP for Edgbaston, posted to X on Sunday to say the woman was a Sikh and announced that MPs will meet with the policing minister this week to discuss “rising anti-Sikh hate”. The attack follows two recent cases of racially aggravated rape against Sikh women, first in Sandwell and then in Walsall.

⚓ The Anchor pub in Digbeth reopened to great fanfare (and some beautiful Irish bagpipes) on Thursday evening, following a takeover by local businessman Peter Connolly. The pub was packed with well-known faces including Carl Chinn who hopped on stage to give a run down of the site’s history, and even mayor Richard Parker was spotted letting his hair down. The Victorian boozer, which was closed suddenly in June, has been refurbished to include a version of Michaelangelo’s Creation of Adam on the ceiling of the back bar, with the added detail of two pints of Guinness. It's an otherwise subtle touch up though, with many features of the grade II listed premises remaining in place. Gerry Keane, the owner of The Anchor, which has been in his family since 1973, gave a rousing speech praising Connolly for taking it on during a “turbulent time for pubs”. Commenting on the changes to Digbeth’s nightlife in recent years, with the arrival of many an activity bar, he said the area has reached “peak ghetto golf”. He continued: “Times are hard, people want pints and we don’t want to play golf to have one”.

Quick Hits

🚙 £1.5 billion loan guaranteed by the UK government reportedly untouched by JLR after cyber attack. (The Guardian). 

🧑‍⚖️ John Ashby, the man accused of a rape against a Sikh woman in Walsall has appeared in court. (BBC). 

🚊 Tram tests on the Eastside metro extension have begun. (X) 

🌹 The Kingswinford Labour Party branch have apologised after ‘depicting’ flag raisers and anti-migrant protestors as ‘Neanderthals.’ (Birmingham Mail). 

👮 Craig Guildford, Chief Constable of West Midlands police denies discriminatory behaviour at tribunal. (BBC). 

🚆 Willenhall and Darlaston stations in the Black Country near completion (Birmingham Mail). 

🏫 Stakeholders reject proposed changes to Dudley Council’s home-to-school transport provision, calling them “discriminatory.” (Birmingham Mail). 

Media picks

📰 The FT has unpacked the news of growing pressure for a public inquiry into Birmingham’s ‘bankruptcy’ with a feature that zooms in on the painful outcomes of that fateful decision. “ The impact of those cuts will be felt for generations,” says Sarah Burton, a volunteer at Stirchley Library, which now opens just three days a week thanks to the brutal cuts brought in since 2023.

📰 The Express and Star have reported on pop-artist Pete Mason’s practice of depicting famous figures with postage stamps. The Hednesford based artist, a retired school teacher, has often grabbed attention for his postal-based portraits of famous figures including the Queen and David Bowie. Mason claims influence from earlier famous pop-artists such as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. He is now making headlines for his giant postage-stamp portrait of Cardinal John Henry Newman, the famous Catholic convert who spent many decades in the West Midlands.  

Our to do list

🎙️ One for the romantics: after selling out tours across the globe, Matteo Bocelli is heading to the Symphony Hall on Tuesday to perform songs from his upcoming album, Falling in Love. Tickets from £45.

🗣️ While HS2 gets pushed back further and further, at least we can enjoy the fact that the beautiful Woodman pub is now open for business. On Wednesday, head there for a free night of poetry, courtesy of Birmingham City University. Info here.

🎤 Spanish-Welsh comedian Ignacio Lopez swaps Live at the Apollo for the stage at Cherry Reds on Thursday night, with his unique brand of sarcastic humour. Tickets £10.

🎞️ Catch a Sunday night screening of the classic for film lovers everywhere, Cinema Paradiso courtesy of the Precious Gems Film Club at the Rock n Roll Brewhouse. Tickets £3.

If someone forwarded you this newsletter, click here to sign up to get quality local journalism in your inbox.