Halesowen and Rowley Regis
2010 Results:
Conservative: 18115 (41.19%)
Labour: 16092 (36.59%)
Liberal Democrat: 6515 (14.81%)
UKIP: 2824 (6.42%)
Independent: 433 (0.98%)
Majority: 2023 (4.6%)
Notional 2005 Results:
Labour: 19219 (46.4%)
Conservative: 15079 (36.4%)
Liberal Democrat: 5148 (12.4%)
Other: 1990 (4.8%)
Majority: 4140 (10%)
Actual 2005 result
Conservative: 14906 (36.1%)
Labour: 19243 (46.6%)
Liberal Democrat: 5204 (12.6%)
UKIP: 1974 (4.8%)
Majority: 4337 (10.5%)
2001 Result
Conservative: 13445 (34.2%)
Labour: 20804 (53%)
Liberal Democrat: 4089 (10.4%)
UKIP: 936 (2.4%)
Majority: 7359 (18.7%)
1997 Result
Conservative: 16029 (32.9%)
Labour: 26366 (54.1%)
Liberal Democrat: 4169 (8.5%)
Referendum: 1244 (2.6%)
Other: 953 (2%)
Majority: 10337 (21.2%)
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: James Morris (Conservative) Director of Localis.
James Morris (Conservative) Director of Localis.
Sue Hayman (Labour)Phillip Tibbets (Liberal Democrat)Derek Badderley (UKIP)2001 Census Demographics
Total 2001 Population: 83497
Male: 48.6%
Female: 51.4%
Under 18: 22.4%
Over 60: 23%
Born outside UK: 4%
White: 93.1%
Black: 0.8%
Asian: 4.3%
Mixed: 1.3%
Other: 0.5%
Christian: 76.3%
Muslim: 2.7%
Sikh: 1.3%
Full time students: 2.4%
Graduates 16-74: 11.9%
No Qualifications 16-74: 38.5%
Owner-Occupied: 70.8%
Social Housing: 22.3% (Council: 18.7%, Housing Ass.: 3.6%)
Privately Rented: 3.4%
Homes without central heating and/or private bathroom: 12.4%
A majority of 2,000 probably means this seat would have gone to the Tories even if Sylvia Heal had stood again. Few MPs have a personal vote of more than 1,000 votes according to what I’ve read in various books.
‘[Halesowen] was in Stourbridge’
Stourbridge (or at least its first incarnation) was only created in 1918! Which seat before then?
It was in Worcestershire Mid, or Droitwich
I’ve noticed two things aobut the seats in Black Country that the last boundary commission failed to notice.
1) All of the seats in Wolverhampton, Dudley and Sandwell have very small electorates.
2) There are now two cross-borough seats (Halesowen and Rowley Regis and Wolverhampton South East).
When the boundary commission create seats that cross the boundary between two counties they are only allowed to create one cross county seat. I know that rule does not apply to metropolitan boroughs, but it is entirley possible to get seats that are close to the quota by having just one black country cross borough seat.
Also, If you add together the electorates of all the seats in Wolverhampton, Sandwell and Dudley, you get closer to the quota by having 9 seats instead of 10 and only having one cross bourogh seat. So this soleves both problems. The 9 seats in have in mind to eliminate these anomalies are:
Wolverhampton North East
Wolverhampton South West
Dudley North and Bilston (the cross borough seat)
Dudley Central
Dudley South and Stourbridge West
Halesowen and Stourbridge East
Tipton and Rowley Regis
West Bromwich and Smethwick
Wednesbury and Great Barr