It's bang in the middle of England... and the epicentre of an economic crisis that is crippling families.
The district of Hodge Hill, four miles east of Birmingham city centre, is officially the country’s worst-hit area for fuel poverty.
It is a place where schoolkids hand over lunchbox treats for poorer, hungrier children.
And where even the homeless make contributions to foodbanks.
The constituency is home to 130,000 people and nearly a third of families live in fuel poverty.
It has one of the highest child poverty rates, with an astonishing 52% of youngsters – nearly 20,000 – living below the breadline. Unemployment is 14.1% – one of the highest in the UK.
Go behind the Government statistics, as the Sunday People did, and you find desperate families struggling to put food on the table amid a double whammy of fuel bills and price rises at the shops.
Many pensioners choose between heating and eating and hordes of families visit foodbanks daily.
They include nurses, who don’t earn enough to feed their families.
Hodge Hill’s Labour MP Liam Byrne tells us: “It’s absolutely shameful. But it’s not unusual. The reality of Boris Johnson ’s Britain is that we have lockdown heroes who don’t earn enough to feed their families. It makes me absolutely enraged. And it’s always the people with nothing who give the most.
“One homeless man came up to us at a foodbank collection asking what we were doing. When we told him, he handed over his own food.
“We literally have the homeless donating their food to us. That’s how desperate the situation is.
“We’re in pretty much the poorest postcode in the country and the generosity is incredible.
“You see children taking Penguin biscuits out of their lunchboxes to give to a foodbank, saying they didn’t want to see people going without.
“We have people with nothing willing to help their neighbours, and a Prime Minister who parties on like there’s no tomorrow, oblivious to what’s going on in real lives.”
Mr Byrne spoke after we uncovered statistics revealing almost one in three hard-pressed people in the West Midlands has had to cut down on essential food items in the past three months. As the UK braces itself for a 50% energy price hike next month, new research from the Post Office and foodbank charity the Trussell Trust shows huge numbers are in crisis across Britain.
Their surveys reveal 40% of Brits have had to make cutbacks to afford food and household bills.
In the West Midlands 31% have less cash for food and half fear worse is to come. It’s not much better in London where 28% had to limit spending.
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Figures from the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy show 3.2 million UK families were in fuel poverty in 2019. Again, the West Midlands was worst hit, with 429,730 homes – or 18% – affected.
At Aston and Nechells foodbank, where Suzi Lea is the co-ordinator, volunteers have seen the numbers of people coming through its doors increasing since the £20 Universal Credit uplift was scrapped last year.
Volunteer Keith Crawford , 45, and his husband Velta , 46, have had to rely on the foodbank themselves.
Keith says: “That extra £20 meant people had dignity. We treat animals better than people in this country. Week in, week out we are seeing broken people come through our doors.
“We see the whole cross-section of society. Since the uplift was removed, we have had starving people coming through the doors who we have had to offer a biscuit and a drink to.
“It’s never been this bad. We had so many people through the doors one day over Christmas that we gave out 300 meals and stayed open longer.
“One man who came in had to choose between eating and showering. How can people live in dignity and how can people go to job interviews in an area of already high unemployment when they can’t afford to shower? It becomes a vicious circle of poverty.”
Family support worker Atia Parveen , who goes into the foodbank to offer debt advice, says people have become trapped by money problems.
She adds: “Foodbanks are never intended as long-term solutions, so we’re here to help people budget.
“But since Covid and now the cost-of-living crisis, we are seeing double trouble.
“Helping people budget doesn’t get them out of crisis because they have nothing and prices continue to rise. We are trapped.”
Care giver Marlene Tavares , 60, collects food for the youngsters she supports. She says: “There are no opportunities for young people in the city.
“We are seeing more and more vulnerable young people who don’t have jobs to go to, the training to support them or the services to help them get out of poverty so they can find work.”
At Welcome Change Community Centre and Cafe, which helps vulnerable people and hosts lunch clubs throughout the week, we meet Lin Morris , 70. She is reliant on the centre and her grandchildren, who also provide her with food.
Lin, who is registered disabled and is in assisted living, tells us: “I am one of the lucky ones, but without the extra support and help I get from my family I think I’d be dead within the year.”
Married Pat and Tony Flynn , 69, fear the impact of “skyrocketing” prices on fuel and groceries.
Their daughter’s food bill for her and her 15-year-old son has gone up from £50 to £100 a week.
Of fuel, Pat, 67, says: “We are really worried because our pensions aren’t going to reflect the price hike.
“It would mean us having to choose between heating or eating.”
Full-time mum Jennifer Gadson , 32, who has Ruby, eight, and Jack, four, has also seen her food shop more than double to over £100. “There isn’t any extra support coming in from the Government to help,” she says.
Childminder Karen Watson , 53, is struggling to meet weekly bills of more than £150.
She tells us: “All of the families I help are telling me worse and worse stories every week – and are even struggling to pay childminding fees.”
Despite the bleak outlook, community spirit is, thankfully, alive and well in Hodge Hill. Pat Woolridge , 56, has been volunteering at the foodbank since it opened nine years ago.
She says: “I am astonished by how much worse it has got over the pandemic. We have seen homelessness go up in the last few months too.”
But amid a pile of donations, Pat packages toys, gifts and books donated for local children. It brings a smile to her face. And she adds, with stoicism typical of Hodge Hill folk: “We’re really lucky to live here.”
