A Report of Birmingham:

Aims:
This text is a report on Birmingham, comparing 4 different areas within it, (Winson Green,
Saltley, Sparkbrook, City Centre) based on their housing and environmental situations. We
will also look at the populations of these areas, and the demographics of the population.
With the information we find, we will hopefully be able to assess any correlations or
important observations.

Methodologies:
To obtain the data that I will be using and showing within this report has been accumulated
from a number of different primary and secondary sources. All of the satellite imagery has
come from Google Earth, which was what was also used to survey the environments for
litter, cleanliness, graffiti, and assessing the lighting of streets. I did this by using Street View
to take an on-ground look at the city streets, assessing the levels of litter and graffiti, the
levels of traffic, as well as the number of lampposts within the streets. I also have data from
the official Birmingham City Council based on the population and demographics, and I have
also used estate websites (https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale.html) to obtain
information about housing prices and housing qualities within these areas.

The Collected Data:

Starting off is the survey of data about the environmental situation:

Saltley
0 1 2 3 4 5
BUILDINGS
High density (many 1 Low density (few properties,
properties within a lots of space)
small space
Bad designed/ugly 1 Well-designed/pleasing to
the eye
No maintenance/ 1 Evidence of maintenance/
no evidence of improvements
improvement
Extensive 3 No vandalism/graffiti
vandalism/graffiti evident
 0 1 2 3 4 5
TRAFFIC
Parking is 2 Parking in garages and
difficult/may cars driveways.
parked on the
roads.
Air smells heavily 2 No smell of car fumes
of traffic fumes
High noise volume 2 No traffic noise
from traffic
Dangerous to 2 Safe for people
people

0 1 2 3 4 5
OPEN SPACE AND GARDENS
No garden/open 1 Large gardens or open space
space – door opens outside house
to street
Garden/open space 1 Garden/open space in good
in poor condition condition
No greenery visible 0 Tree/shrubs/greenery
visible
No public parks 0 Public Park easily accessible

0 1 2 3 4 5
GENERAL QUALITY
Much litter 0 No litter
Paths poorly 2 Paths well maintained
maintained/broken
paving etc
Area is undesirable 1 Area is desirable
Unwelcoming feel 1 Welcoming feel

TOTAL ENVIROMENTAL QUALITY SCORE: 20

Sparkrbook
0 1 2 3 4 5
 BUILDINGS
High density (many 1 Low density (few properties,
properties within a lots of space)
small space
Bad designed/ugly 1 Well-designed/pleasing to
the eye
No maintenance/ 1 Evidence of maintenance/
no evidence of improvements
improvement
Extensive 3 No vandalism/graffiti
vandalism/graffiti evident

0 1 2 3 4 5
TRAFFIC
Parking is 1 Parking in garages and
difficult/may cars driveways.
parked on the
roads.
Air smells heavily 2 No smell of car fumes
of traffic fumes
High noise volume 2 No traffic noise
from traffic
Dangerous to 2 Safe for people
people

0 1 2 3 4 5
OPEN SPACE AND GARDENS
No garden/open 2 Large gardens or open space
space – door opens outside house
to street
Garden/open space 2 Garden/open space in good
in poor condition condition
No greenery visible 1 Tree/shrubs/greenery
visible
No public parks 0 Public Park easily accessible

0 1 2 3 4 5
 GENERAL QUALITY
Much litter 0 No litter
Paths poorly 1 Paths well maintained
maintained/broken
paving etc
Area is undesirable 1 Area is desirable
Unwelcoming feel 1 Welcoming feel

TOTAL ENVIROMENTAL QUALITY SCORE: 21

Winson Green
0 1 2 3 4 5
BUILDINGS
High density (many 0 Low density (few properties,
properties within a lots of space)
small space
Bad designed/ugly 1 Well-designed/pleasing to
the eye
No maintenance/ 1 Evidence of maintenance/
no evidence of improvements
improvement
Extensive 0 No vandalism/graffiti
vandalism/graffiti evident

0 1 2 3 4 5
TRAFFIC
Parking is 1 Parking in garages and
difficult/may cars driveways.
parked on the
roads.
Air smells heavily 2 No smell of car fumes
of traffic fumes
High noise volume 3 No traffic noise
from traffic
Dangerous to 2 Safe for people
people
 0 1 2 3 4 5
OPEN SPACE AND GARDENS
No garden/open 1 Large gardens or open space
space – door opens outside house
to street
Garden/open space 1 Garden/open space in good
in poor condition condition
No greenery visible 0 Tree/shrubs/greenery
visible
No public parks 0 Public Park easily accessible

0 1 2 3 4 5
GENERAL QUALITY
Much litter 0 No litter
Paths poorly 0 Paths well maintained
maintained/broken
paving etc
Area is undesirable 0 Area is desirable
Unwelcoming feel 0 Welcoming feel

TOTAL ENVIROMENTAL QUALITY SCORE: 12

City Centre.
0 1 2 3 4 5
BUILDINGS
High density (many 2 Low density (few properties,
properties within a lots of space)
small space
Bad designed/ugly 4 Well-designed/pleasing to
the eye
No maintenance/ 4 Evidence of maintenance/
no evidence of improvements
improvement
Extensive No vandalism/graffiti
vandalism/graffiti evident

0 1 2 3 4 5
TRAFFIC
Parking is 2 Parking in garages and
 difficult/may cars driveways.
parked on the
roads.
Air smells heavily 0 No smell of car fumes
of traffic fumes
High noise volume 1 No traffic noise
from traffic
Dangerous to 2 Safe for people
people

0 1 2 3 4 5
OPEN SPACE AND GARDENS
No garden/open 4 Large gardens or open space
space – door opens outside house
to street
Garden/open space 3 Garden/open space in good
in poor condition condition
No greenery visible 4 Tree/shrubs/greenery
visible
No public parks 5 Public Park easily accessible

0 1 2 3 4 5
GENERAL QUALITY
Much litter 3 No litter
Paths poorly 4 Paths well maintained
maintained/broken
paving etc
Area is undesirable 4 Area is desirable
Unwelcoming feel 4 Welcoming feel

TOTAL ENVIROMENTAL QUALITY SCORE: 43

Saltley
Distance Residential Industria Commercia Entertainment Public Open Transport Services
Along l l Building Spac
Transect e

0-200 -- -- -- --
 200-400 -- -- -- -- -- --
400-600 -- -- -- --
600-800 -- -- -- -- --
800- -- -- -- -- --
1000
1000- --
1200
1200- --
1400
1400- -- -- --
1600
1600-
1800
1800-
2000

SparkBrook

Distance Residential Industria Commercia Entertainment Public Open Transport Services

Along l l Building Spac
Transect e

0-200 -- -- -- --
200-400 -- -- -- --
400-600 -- -- -- -- -- --
600-800 -- -- -- --
800- -- -
1000
1000- -- --
1200
1200- -- -- -- --
1400
1400- --
1600
1600- -- -- -- --
1800
1800- -- -- --
2000

Winson Green

Distance Residential Industria Commercia Entertainment Public Open Transport Services

Along l l Building Spac
Transect e

0-200 -- -- -- -- --
 200-400 -- --
400-600 -- -- -- --
600-800 -- --
800- -- -- --
1000
1000- -- -- --
1200
1200- -- --
1400
1400- -- -- --
1600
1600- --
1800
1800- -- --
2000

City Centre

Distance Residential Industria Commercia Entertainment Public Open Transport Services

Along l l Building Spac
Transect e

0-200 -- -- -- -- -- --
200-400 -- -- -- -- --
400-600 -- -- -- -- --
600-800 -- -- -- --
800- -- -- -- --
1000
1000- -- -- --
1200
1200- -- -- -- --
1400
1400-
1600
1600-
1800
1800-
2000

These are the scores for what the environment and houses are like within the areas. The
garden measurements have been done using Google Earth to measure out the size of the
gardens and judging whether they are larger or not. Some of the qualities within both of the
surveys mentioned will have been disregarded due to an inability to accurately assess it, for
example, the noise within areas or the age of housing. Unless this would have been clear,
(modern apartments within the city centre) it was left at 0.
The first of these maps display migrants who have lived within Birmingham for more or less
than 10 years, which will help us learn of how people who migrate to Birmingham are maps
which display ethnic groups within the different wards of Birmingham. This can help us learn
more about the population demographic and what correlation the ethnicities of people
within areas can help us identify links between ethnicity and quality.
The map below is a map of deprivation within Birmingham. This map will tell us a simple
overview of the wealth and unemployment disparity between different areas of
Birmingham.
Interpretation of Data:

One of the first things I did was take all of this raw data and make it more simplified.
The surveys of the housing and environmental situations within these environments have
been condensed to provide a graph that looks like the following.

This graph has showed us the different qualities of housing and environments within the
four areas; however, these don’t account for the entire picture.
As can be seen, these areas are all pretty
close to each other, yet show quite a
large disparity between each other, with
the city centre having very high-quality
housing, compared to Winson Green
where the housing is cheap, poor, and
incredibly unhygienic.
However, one thing that is consistent
between all 4 areas,
is that the environmental situations of these areas are all quite poor, with a lot of litter and
graffiti, and cars blocking the pavements.
And the areas where the housing is more expensive like in the City Centre, the population is
predominantly white British, while the areas with poorer housing quality and environmental
situations are the areas that are dominated by a majority of Pakistani, Indian, and non-
British population.

From all the maps and photos that we are able to look at and comparing that to a diagram
of city layouts.

This is the Hoyt model, and it can help us assess the data that we have collected more.
Comparing this with Birmingham itself, we can see that practically surrounding the CBD, the
main population are migrants and non-white-British people. And we can also see that the
areas surrounding the CBD are areas of working-class housing. We can also see using the
map of deprivation that these areas and the people within them are more highly
unemployed and paid less compared to those in areas with lower deprivation, where there
is a stronger population of White British people, and the housing is more expensive.

Housing:

These 3 photos of housing prices from 3 different areas that we have been looking at show
the disparity between the deprivation levels, population, and the housing situations.
We can see that in Winson Green, houses are lower quality, with smaller gardens, no private
parking, and the houses themselves being quite worn down and broken, which due to their
inferior quality warrants a lower price for them. Then we can see in Sparkbrook, some
houses are still quite poor quality, but they are decent houses, some with larger gardens,
some with private driveways, and this then warrants a higher price yield for them due to
their better quality. And finally, we can see that the apartments within the City Centre are
all modern buildings, with up-to-date and expensive heating systems, furniture, and
appliances, and are in top quality, hence warranting them to be more expensive than the
rest. However, most of the places within the City Centre are empty due to their pricing, and
when there are small apartments going for 10x more than a small house within a different
area, then there is something causing this problem.
We can also see that in the areas with lower quality housing, and cheaper housing in
general, there are higher deprivation levels and a lower white population.

All of this information tells us that in areas with a higher white population, there are lower
levels of deprivation, more expensive and quality housing, and that whilst still being in poor
conditions, these areas are getting more attention environmentally, in cleaning up.
During my looks through street view, I could see that within the deprived areas, graffiti was
being covered up with quick paint jobs, but there were filled skips on the sides of roads, and
mattresses and other pieces of rubbish that had been disregarded and discarded into streets
and on pavements. However, within the city centre and more “expensive” areas, the litter
had been getting cleaned up and there was a lot less graffiti in general, with the lighting
being of a higher quality too.
We can also see from the maps of non-British residents pre and post 10 years of residency,
that there is practically no change whatsoever. No matter how long they stay in the city,
they are still stuck in deprived areas, rarely moving into, and almost being economically
separated from areas with a higher white populace. The depravity remains the same and so
does the population consensus.
It is clear that these populations within these depraved areas are in need of better options
and opportunities to allow them to move into better and more quality housing rather than
just what they can settle to afford.

However, our data also brings up another problem, with the poor environmental situation
within all areas of Birmingham. Despite it being worse in some areas and better in others,
there is still a large amount of litter within the streets, and so much housing areas and
estates that the level of greenery within the cities and areas is decreasing rapidly, and
despite the city’s population having gone down ever so slightly in the last year, the city itself
will still continue to build and build, creating more houses for those who can’t afford them
yet, and more ways to accommodate for all the people within the city (because there is
quite a hefty population still). We can see that there is also a housing problem, where
unnecessary buildings and expensive apartments are made that are yet to be filled and most
likely won’t be filled either, however, the poor quality and extremely cheap housing within
poorer areas aren’t being filled either, because they are old, forgotten, beaten up and
bedraggled to the point where living in it would become an expensive problem due to leaks,
shortages and any problems that will most likely arise from living within them. What is
needed for people in these areas of higher deprivation is renewed and improved housing.
The areas that have been reviewed in this report, and likely the rest of the city needs a
refresh, and that is a refresh outside of the city centre, focusing on the impoverished and
locals in poverty, who struggle to get by and live comfortably, even after 10 years.

Conclusion:
Overall, we can see that in these areas, there is a major difference in the housing situations,
particularly those of Winson Green and of less deprived areas, with higher white
populations, such as the City Centre, where housing is more quality and expensive. We have
also learned that the environmental situation is poor in all of the highlighted areas of
Birmingham, yet there are distinct levels to how bad it gets.
We have also looked at the demographics of the population and learned that White
populations live in areas of lower depravity and those of non-British ethnicities live in areas
with a higher depravity. We’ve learned that despite the population being quite varying, it’s
consistently sizable, and the changing isn’t great enough to cause an impact. As for other
demographics, such as age and gender, we can see that they are split quite evenly, and
there isn’t a clear comparison that can be made between ages, but the only visibly clear
difference is between the ethnicities of populations.

Evaluation:
Evaluating Birmingham and the areas we’ve looked at, we can see it’s in quite a bad state in
terms of its environment, where litter is strewn across all of the streets indiscriminately yet
at varying levels, and housing is either too expensive and ignored, or too cheap and not
quality enough to be viable for occupancy. Birmingham is also strong for its population
diversity, which is what it’s well known for, where there’s a big population of non-British
residents, all of varying ages too.