Birmingham Ladywood (UK Parliament constituency)
Birmingham Ladywood is a constituency[n 1] of part of the city of Birmingham, represented in the House of Commons since 2010 by Shabana Mahmood of the Labour Party.[n 2]
Constituency profile[edit]
Birmingham Ladywood includes Birmingham City Centre along with the areas of Aston, Ladywood, Nechells and Soho. The area is one of the most multicultural in Birmingham and the whole of the United Kingdom; in the 1991 census, 55.6% of the constituency population were ethnic minorities, the highest in England at the time.[3] In the recession of 2008–09, it was the first place in the UK where the unemployment claimant count rate exceeded 10%, breaching that level in January 2009. In July 2008, Ladywood had the highest unemployment rate in the whole of the West Midlands (by the international standardised measure, which is usually higher than the claimant count) at just over 18%, compared with neighbouring Birmingham seats Perry Barr (8.1%), Sparkbrook and Small Heath (13.9%), and Yardley (7%).[4][5] For the year ending September 2014, the unemployment rate was 12.4%,[6] although the employment rate had increased only slightly, from 46.1% to 46.6% (compared with 69.7% for the West Midlands as a whole).[7]
The average house price in Ladywood is just under £155,000; making it much lower than the national average of just over £288,000.[8]