Birmingham Citizens Secure Pre Election Pledges
On the evening of the 16th of April, hundreds of people from across Birmingham packed out the Great Hall at the University of Birmingham for our Accountability Assembly. Three weeks before the City Council elections, we brought together leaders from schools, universities, faith communities, and community organisations to do business with the people who could be running our city.
As our co-chair Angela Jeffery reminded the room at the start of the night: Birmingham is the youngest city in Western Europe, and almost half of our children are growing up in poverty. Over 11,000 of those children are currently living in temporary accommodation. That is the scale of what we are up against.
It was the culmination of more than a year's work - thousands of one-to-one conversations & house meetings, and over 200 leaders from across the city working on a shared plan. And it delivered.
Housing
Meena Bibi of Saathi House and Dr Carl Stevenson of the University of Birmingham (co-chairs of our Housing Action Team) opened the first half of the night by laying out Birmingham's Housing Crisis. Over 11,000 children are growing up in temporary accommodation and only a quarter of its council housing meets the Decent Homes Standard.
They were followed by Fatima, who runs the community advice surgery at Dream Chasers Youth Club in Small Heath. Fatima read out the testimony of a mother we called Saira: a year in a single B&B room with two small children and their disabled grandmother, a shared kitchen that closes at 9pm, a son with celiac disease, and a job slipping away because the hours no longer fit.
Gemma Bowen, President of Newman Students' Union, spoke next. She shared her experienced of years spent fighting damp and mould spreading through her council home, being passed from pillar to post, and eventually being struck off the repairs list because she was at work the day an appointment was booked.
- A published charter in 2026 setting minimum standards in temporary accommodation, so that the 11,000 children currently growing up in B&Bs and other temporary homes have access to the basics: cooking facilities, laundry, Wi-Fi, secure storage, and clear information on their rights.
- A commitment to launch Birmingham's next Net Zero Neighbourhood in the B19 wards - a call led by our youth leaders working with Aston Villa Foundation and the University of Birmingham.
Work
Clare Sharp Vice President of Newman Students' Union and Elaine Li of Bournville Village Trust led us through discussing work. Our jobs crisis in Birmingham is also huge. It has the highest unemployment rate of any of the UK's major cities at nearly 14%. One in five young people aged 18-24 are unemployed, nearly double the national average.
They handed the microphone first to young leaders from the BLESST Centre, who shared a powerful account of the reality of being a young person struggling to find work.
Then to the Year 6 Student Leadership Team at Ark Victoria Academy in Small Heath. The Year 6s talked about the £3bn being spent on the Sports Quarter down the road from their school. They want local families to feel the benefit.
- Make the Sports and Knowledge Quarters work for local people. The £3bn Sports Quarter and the £4bn Knowledge Quarter established as Living Wage Zones, with every job in construction and on the completed sites paying the Real Living Wage, alongside outreach and training so local people actually get those jobs.
- Create integrated Employment Literacy programmes. Fund a pilot Employment Literacy programme, working with local employers, job coaches and community organisations, that equips jobseekers with the support, language skills and confidence they need for long-term employment - and guarantees an interview for a permanent role. Connected in the first instance to Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Trust, who currently have hundreds of unfilled vacancies.
- Build a network of Community Job Shops. Long-term investment in employment support, ending the boom-and-bust of 12–18 month funding cycles, and ensuring every community has locally rooted employment support for the long term.
- Lead by example. Commit to the City Council directing at least 50% of its apprenticeship funding towards early-career roles over the lifetime of the council, and to creating a clear, public route for accessing paid work experience with travel costs covered.
Alongside those issues, we asked every political leader to commit to meeting us within their first 100 days in office to track progress - and to work with us to build trust across difference in an increasingly polarised political landscape.
We were pleased to be joined on the night by Graeme Brown, Editor in Chief of Birmingham Live and the Birmingham Mail - a publication with a long record of putting our city's child poverty crisis on the front page. Graeme shared his enthusiasm for the issues raised by the alliance, and said that communities must come together to demand change.
The Responses We Secured
We heard from four of the five parties invited: Cllr John Cotton for Labour, Cllr Robert Alden for the Conservatives, Cllr Roger Harmer for the Liberal Democrats, and Jane Baston for the Green Party.
We secured a public commitment from all of the representatives to work with us to put our asks into practice, and to bring senior council officers to a meeting with us before September to discuss progress.
Commitments made on stage in front of hundreds of people are the start, not the end. Over the coming weeks, months and years we will be working with our city's political leaders to make sure those commitments translate into action: unsuitable accommodation must be put right or replaced, damp & poorly insulated homes need upgrading, and local families need support securing good jobs in to their neighbourhoods.
Reform UK, having been invited to the Assembly, informed us on the 1st of April that they would no longer attend. We offered them the opportunity to submit written responses to our priorities for publication on our website, and we are seeking a meeting with their team after the elections. If we receive a response we will update this page.
Join us
The Assembly showed us that we are stronger together. If you are part of a school, faith community, university, students' union, charity or community organisation that shares our commitment to working for change - we would love to talk.
Come to a free taster training
We use a method called community organising to build our alliance and win change. If you want to learn more about how it works, come along to one of our free taster sessions. They are open to anyone exploring joining us, as well as leaders from existing member institutions who want to learn more.
Training will be held on the 17th and 18th of June.
If you are in Birmingham, or the Black Country, register for free taster training here.
Growing in the Black Country.
We are building a brand new alliance across Sandwell, Walsall, Dudley and Wolverhampton.
- Walsall - 21st of May, 10:15-1:00
- Wolverhampton - 15th of June, 10:15-1:00
- Dudley - 9th of July - 10:15-1:00
- Sandwell - 16th of July - 10:00-12:30
RSVP and further details by getting in touch.
If you are connected to communities across the Black Country please join us!
Lets talk!
If you have been inspired by what you have seen and want to know more, the best next step is a conversation. No pressure, let's grab a coffee and talk about how you can play a role in building strong communities that win change.