Halesowen and Rowley Regis

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Boundary changes: Minor changes to bring the constituency into line with ward boundaries. Loses a tiny part of Cradley & Foxcote to Stourbridge, part of Langley to Warley and a tiny part of Tividale to West Bromwich West. Gains part of Belle Vale from Stourbridge, part of Rowley ward from West Bromwich West and a tiny part of Blackheath ward from Warley.

Profile: A crossborough seat, taking in Halesowen from the Borough of Dudley and Rowley Regis from Sandwell. Halesown is a middle-class, dormitory suburb, consisting largely of private housing. Rowley Regis is a more traditional black country manufacturing area, dominated by terraced housing and council estates. The seat is very much a marginal - Halesowen tends to the Conservatives - in the 1990s the area returned Labour councillors but it is now back in Tory hands, while Rowley Regis tends to vote Labour (although Blackheath ward has returned Conservative councillors in recent elections).

The original Conservative PPC, Nigel Hastilow, resigned in 2007 after having said in a newspaper article that Enoch Powell had been right in his 1968 ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech.

Current MP: Sylvia Heal (Labour) born 1942, North Wales. Educated at Elfed Secondary and the University of Wales, Swansea. Former social worker specialising in drug rehabilitation. MP for Mid-Staffordshire from the 1990 by-election until the 1992 election. First elected as MP for Halesowen and Rowley Regis in 1997. Was a shadow health spokesman from 1991-2. After her election in 1997 she served as PPS to George Robertson and Geoff Hoon before becoming Deputy Speaker in 2000. Her sister is the Labour MP for Brentford & Isleworth, Ann Keen. (more information at They work for you)

Candidates:
Steven Morson (UKIP) Former IT consultant.
James Morris (Conservative) Director of Localis.