Residents of a neighbourhood in Birmingham have been anxious and concerned over a £2.2bn redevelopment plan in the area that could see them pushed out of their homes. They held a demonstration in Birmingham city center, outside the Council House today.
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00:00 Ladywood! Thank you everyone for coming today. We need to be here to protect our homes.
00:11 It is not okay that the government wants to compulsorily purchase thousands of homes in Ladywood and kick us out.
00:21 We will not allow that to happen. Hands off Ladywood!
00:31 I'm involved in running Ladywood Methodist Church on St Vincent Street West.
00:36 My actual home is outside the area but my church is right in the middle of it.
00:43 If you look at the council documents on the website, they are proposing to demolish all the churches and replace them with secular community buildings.
00:55 In other words, the Birmingham City Council thinks places of worship are dispensable. You don't need them.
01:03 Obviously, I think that is utterly horrific. The arrogance of it is beyond me.
01:11 I heard about this rather suddenly, like most people around here, around the area.
01:18 I went to that messed up council meeting. I was one of the many people, several hundred people, locked out
01:27 because they couldn't build a venue that was big enough to hold it.
01:32 My name is Laura. I live in Ladywood. I've lived there for a couple of years. I work at the University of Birmingham.
01:38 I was surprised a number of weeks ago to find out from the news that my home is at risk of a compulsory purchase order.
01:44 I just bought my home a couple of years ago. I'm a first-time homeowner.
01:49 I was really excited to finally get out of the rental market.
01:52 But now I feel like I've been thrown back into uncertainty again.
01:55 There are thousands of people who are in the same situation.
01:58 People have sometimes the impression of Ladywood as being a deprived area, but that's not true.
02:04 There's a lot of inequality within as well as between areas.
02:08 Yes, there are some parts of Ladywood that need to be improved, but there are also some parts that don't need to be knocked down.
02:14 And our land is being taken from us without our consent and being given to a luxury developer.
02:21 And that is completely inappropriate. We do not have power.
02:24 People are scared. The council has given us an email address, Ladywood Regeneration.
02:31 They don't respond to that. Our councillors have all but stopped responding to us.
02:35 We've made hundreds of complaints and sent hundreds of emails, and we don't know what's going to happen.
02:40 People aren't able to sell their homes.
02:42 We have people who wanted to move out of the area and people are not able to sell their properties anymore.
02:49 Not able to plan for the future.
02:51 I was thinking about buying some extra furniture for my home, but if I'm going to be kicked out, I don't know if I should do that.
02:58 People are worried about not being able to have the community that they have in Ladywood anymore.
03:05 People have lived here for decades. There are generations that live here.
03:10 And what they found out is that all of their homes are now at risk of compulsory purchase.
03:15 And that's completely unacceptable.
03:17 We have some demands. We're not just against what's happening.
03:21 We want to have a funded community group, Berkeley Homes.
03:27 That has millions of pounds.
03:29 We deserve to have funding for our group as well, and that should come from the government.
03:34 And we deserve to have real autonomy and agency, and to have the ability to influence the choices that are being made about our area.
03:42 At the moment, that hasn't happened at all.
03:45 The council said that they would get back to us by the end of last month with more information.
03:50 We would get a frequently asked question sheet.
03:52 We've been sending hundreds of questions.
03:54 We haven't had that, and we expect them to respond.
03:58 So basically, Birmingham City Council, when he came out with this decision to demolish the houses,
04:04 a lot of people that comes out with anxieties, they can't sleep, they can't work, basically they can't enjoy their daily lives.
04:12 Some of the kids basically, they don't want to go to school because they're thinking, "Oh, the house is going. I don't want my house to go."
04:20 "I don't want to stay in Ladewood with the same people, with the same features we had, with the same facilities."
04:29 "We don't want to lose all our neighbours."
04:33 I was thinking, "How are we going to go to school and concentrate on our education?"
04:39 I didn't say that I wanted to concentrate on education.
04:41 I'll tell you, for example, it's my son, in a way.
04:44 Every day, he wakes up, he says, "Dad, our house is going. I don't want my house to go."
04:49 "How are we going to go to school and concentrate on my education?"
04:53 "I won't be able to concentrate on my education."
04:55 "Sorry, on my education."
04:57 And basically, stuff like this, in a way, affected even the youngest.
05:04 Everybody in tears. Everybody got depression and anxieties because of the decision the council made.
05:11 We want the council, basically, to offer you the decision they made, with a proper consultation with the residents.
05:22 Which we can get involved more and tell them what really we want.
05:27 But basically, they want what they themselves want.
05:31 They don't care about the residents. They care about tower blocks, flats, apartments.
05:38 There is no houses. They're only lying to us. There is a house, but there is no houses.
05:43 If there is a house, we need an action plan, which has been drawn, and then to tell us,
05:50 "This house is going to be here. You're going to be here, but when will we be there?"
05:54 "Are we the first people to move in, or the people who come from London, basically?"
06:00 "The business people."
06:02 So, they don't look at the residents, to be honest.