Final recommendations for the new electoral arrangements for Birmingham City Council Electoral review September 2016 Translations and other formats For information on obtaining this publication in another language or in a large-print or Braille version please contact the Local Government Boundary Commission for England: Tel: 0330 500 1525 Email: [email protected] The mapping in this report is reproduced from OS mapping by the Local Government Boundary Commission for England with the permission of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, © Crown Copyright. Unauthorised reproduction infringes Crown Copyright and may lead to prosecution or civil proceedings. Licence Number: GD 100049926 2016 Contents Summary 1 1 Introduction 3 2 Analysis and final recommendations 5 Submissions received 5 Electorate figures 5 Council size 6 Warding patterns 7 Draft recommendations 8 Further draft recommendations 9 Final recommendations 12 City centre and surrounding area 13 East of city centre 18 North of city centre 21 South-east of city centre 25 South-west of city centre 29 Sutton Coldfield 33 Conclusions 36 Parish electoral arrangements 36 3 What happens next? 38 Appendices A Table A1: Final recommendations for Birmingham City 39 Council B Submissions received 45 C Glossary and abbreviations 48 Summary Who we are The Local Government Boundary Commission for England (LGBCE) is an independent body set up by Parliament. We are not part of government or any political party. We are accountable to Parliament through a committee of MPs chaired by the Speaker of the House of Commons. Our main role is to carry out electoral reviews of local authorities throughout England. Electoral review An electoral review examines and proposes new electoral arrangements for a local authority. A local authority’s electoral arrangements decide: How many councillors are needed How many wards or electoral divisions should there be, where are their boundaries and what should they be called How many councillors should represent each ward or division Why Birmingham? We are conducting a review of Birmingham City Council following a recommendation by Sir Bob Kerslake (now Lord Kerslake) in his review of the governance and organisational capabilities of Birmingham City Council. That review followed on from concerns about the effectiveness of current operational arrangements in the Council. We subsequently agreed to undertake such a review, stimulated by Kerslake’s objective of improving effective and convenient local government in Birmingham. Our proposals for Birmingham Birmingham City Council currently has 120 councillors. Based on the evidence we received during previous phases of the review, we considered that a reduction in council size to 100 members will ensure the Council can discharge its roles and responsibilities effectively. In developing the draft recommendations for Birmingham we identified that a council size of 101 members would provide for a better warding pattern across the city. Our draft recommendations were therefore based on a council size of 101. During consultation on our draft recommendations we received over 2,000 submissions commenting on the warding pattern. In light of the local evidence received we decided to publish further draft recommendations. Our further draft recommendations proposed that Birmingham City Council’s 101 councillors should represent 41 single-member wards and 30 two-member wards across the city. Two of our proposed wards would have had an electoral variance of greater than 10% from the average for Birmingham by 2021. 1 During consultation on our further draft recommendations we received a further 760 submissions including a number of petitions. Electoral arrangements Our final recommendations propose that Birmingham City Council’s 101 councillors should represent 37 single-member wards and 32 two-member wards across the city. None of our proposed wards would have an electoral variance of greater than 10% from the average for Birmingham by 2021. We have finalised our recommendations for electoral arrangements for Birmingham. 2 1 Introduction 1 This electoral review is being conducted following our decision to review Birmingham City Council’s (‘the Council’s’) electoral arrangements to ensure that the wards provide for effective and convenient local government and that the number of voters represented by each councillor is approximately the same across the city. What is an electoral review? 2 Our three main considerations in conducting an electoral review are set out in legislation1 and are to: Improve electoral equality by equalising the number of electors each councillor represents Reflect community identity Provide for effective and convenient local government 3 Our task is to strike the best balance between them when making our recommendations. Our powers, as well as the guidance we have provided for electoral reviews and further information on the review process, can be found on our website at www.lgbce.org.uk Consultation 4 We wrote to the Council as well as other interested parties, inviting the submission of proposals on council size. We then held three periods of consultation: first on warding patterns for the Council, secondly on our draft recommendations and finally on our further draft recommendations. The submissions received during our consultations have informed our final recommendations. This review was conducted as follows: Stage starts Description 14 July 2015 Council size decision 21 July 2015 Invitation to submit proposals for warding arrangements to LGBCE 29 September 2015 LGBCE’s analysis and formulation of draft recommendations 15 December 2015 Publication of draft recommendations and consultation 9 February 2016 Analysis of submissions received 10 May 2016 Publication of further draft recommendations and consultation 21 June 2016 Analysis of submissions received and formulation of final recommendations 6 September 2016 Publication of final recommendations 1 Schedule 2 to the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009. 3 How will the recommendations affect you? 5 The recommendations will determine how many councillors will serve on the Council. They will also decide which ward you vote in, which other communities are in that ward and, in some instances, which parish council ward you vote in. Your ward name may also change, as may the names of parish or town council wards in the area. The names or boundaries of parishes will not change as a result of our recommendations. What is the Local Government Boundary Commission for England? 6 The Local Government Boundary Commission for England is an independent body set up by Parliament under the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009. Members of the Commission are: Professor Colin Mellors (Chair) Dr Peter Knight CBE DL Alison Lowton Peter Maddison Sir Tony Redmond Professor Paul Wiles CB Chief Executive: Jolyon Jackson CBE 4 2 Analysis and final recommendations 7 Legislation states that our recommendations are not intended to be based solely on the existing number of electors2 in an area, but also on estimated changes in the number and distribution of electors likely to take place over a five-year period from the date of our final recommendations. We must also try to recommend strong, clearly identifiable boundaries for the wards we put forward at the end of the review. 8 In reality, the achievement of absolute electoral fairness is unlikely to be attainable and there must be a degree of flexibility. However, our approach is to keep variances in the number of electors each councillor represents to a minimum. 9 In seeking to achieve electoral fairness, we work out the average number of electors per councillor by dividing the electorate by the number of councillors as shown on the table below. 2015 2021 Electorate of Birmingham 728,730 813,981 Number of Councillors 101 101 Average number of 7,215 8,059 electors per councillor 10 Under our final recommendations, none of our proposed wards will have electoral variances of greater than 10% from the average for the city by 2021. We are therefore satisfied that we have achieved good levels of electoral fairness for Birmingham. 11 Additionally, in circumstances where we propose to divide a parish between city wards, we are required to divide it into parish wards so that each parish ward is wholly contained within a single city ward. We cannot make amendments to the external boundaries of parishes as part of an electoral review. 12 These recommendations cannot affect the external boundaries of Birmingham City Council or result in changes to postcodes. Nor is there any evidence that the recommendations will have an adverse effect on local taxes, house prices, or car and house insurance premiums. The proposals do not take account of parliamentary constituency boundaries, and we are not, therefore, able to take into account any representations which are based on these issues. Submissions received 13 See Appendix B for details of submissions received. All submissions may be inspected at our offices (by appointment). All submissions received can also be viewed on our website at www.lgbce.org.uk Electorate figures 14 As prescribed in the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009, the Council submitted electorate forecasts for 2021, a period 2 Electors refer to the number of people registered to vote, not the whole adult population. 5 five years on from the scheduled publication of our final recommendations in 2016. These forecasts were