It's half past nine on a Wednesday morning.
I've been here enough times that you know,
pre-pandemic used to be teaming with people.
It's still odd, innit? The oddness remains.
It's starting to feel permanent.
First thing you see when you arrive in Birmingham is that.
A massive John Lewis store.
In January this year they announced they were closing it.
What are you gonna do with a building like that?
There was a Debenhams over there as well.
It's like, changing, ain't it?
Life's changed and the whole city changed.
It's like a weird medium ... where it's like really busy but it's dead.
Do you know what I mean?
Well, we're originally from Wolverhampton
so compared to Wolverhampton, this is ... — Good.
Yeah. This is busy. Wolverhampton is a ghost town.
Sorry Wolverhampton.
This is Las Vegas compared to Wolverhampton.
Well that's because they've evacuated the Bullring, that's why.
Just to make this clear, this is the sort of fire drill.
They've just evacuated the shopping centre there which is why the world suddenly looks like it's
the last two minutes it's gone back to normal.
This is not really the case.
It really is.
Some of our most formative sort of journalistic experiences happened here.
Politicians and the people around them tend to talk about ...
This is where we learn to love vox pops.
Talking to people on the street is a way of finding out about politics.
How much are you making on a bad day?
Nothing. — You work all day for nothing?
Yeah.
What else is there? There's no other way.
I'm 19 years old, I'm full of ambition, desire ... I want to do something.
Birmingham has taught us a lot over the years.
What are you going to vote? In or out?
So while of media attention is being paid to the Hartlepool by-election,
we've decided to come back here.
[Buskers singing]
Tell me what it's like looking for work at the minute?
Hard, very hard especially when you have kids to support.
[Busker singing]
Yeah, I was supposed to start work and then Covid happened so they didn't have me.
What were you meant to be doing?
Working in the cafe.
I've been working for the circus, me.
Working for the circus, we had it all booked in last year, Covid just came crashing down on us.
Universal Credits doing people in, mate.
Wow, what was that like?
Absolute nightmare, I've got kids at home.
Gonna have to find new ways of employing people because I think there's gonna be less people
actually going into stock shops and things like that.
From the generation that suffered through Covid and had to come out of school
and everything I think that we'll see a lot of innovation, a lot of entrepreneurs,
people setting up their own small businesses.
I'm gonna set up my own barbershop at some point to work for myself
so that if anything does happen again, at least i've got my own company behind me.
That's UB40.
UB40.
We're in the constituency of Hodge Hill which is reckoned to have the highest rate
of unemployment of anywhere in the country.
And everywhere we go there are these billboards for UB40
or certainly that version of UB40,
the birmingham reggae group who took their name from the form you filled in the 80s
to get unemployment benefit.
One of his biggest hits was called one in 10 which is about the rate of unemployment then.
This part of Birmingham now, I think the rate of unemployment is closer to one in seven.
We're going to a part of the city where unemployment is particularly bad:
Alum Rock.
We reported on life here from a distance during the first lockdown.
Alum Rock has been hit hard by Covid.
These are the pillars of our community, these are our elders, our loved ones.
You know, losing them at this ... especially in Covid-19, the time that we're in is heartbreaking.
Now we wanted to come back and hear from people in person.
Ok, this is where we're meeting him, right?
It's obviously the main ...
Very few people here have had solids or liquid since about what? Six o'clock?
No since last night? – That's right, yeah.
Moment of reset ... get back to basics again.
It's a chance for us to reflect about how many people have passed away.
At the same time, economically, we've been really affected, you know.
Is this your business? – Aye.
Which one is busy?
You see busy in any shop? – True, true.
Yeah bits and bobs, I suppose ... – Very quiet.
What he's saying is that we managed to get money from the council,
my landlord knows about it so he's saying I want to improve your rent because uh ...
What your landlord wants to put your rent up? – Yeah.
But god, this is this area, this is just teeming with small businesses
there's not a chain store in sight.
No, no, no, yeah, this is like your proper bazaar that you get in India and Pakistan.
Someone will talk to us in here. – Yeah.
So before we used to sell this for about £35 or so.
Now we just decreased it.
Now as we are selling for £20. – Wow.
Look at the prices.
Just sell it with a one or two pound profit.
I don't know what to do.
[Music plays]
So this is yours?
Yeah but we've not been open that long. We've been open two months ago.
So obviously you're a food business, right? How's it going?
We've had a really good response because it's the month of Ramadan.
We're open till four in the morning when they start their fast
so everybody's gathered around here coming for food, eating. It's really nice.
We're on Instagram, we're on TikTok, um Snapchat.
You're really trying, right? – Yeah, I'm trying really hard.
I mean look at the hours we're putting in and stuff.
Things were getting really hard as well because I'm a wedding photographer, as well.
So weddings were kind of getting cancelled and this was something i've always wanted to do.
It was like a little dream that I want to do some catering.
[Music plays]
When we first covered Alum Rock at the height of the first lockdown,
working remotely what we missed, really, was the sort of determination and resourcefulness
and resilience of people here, which you've just seen hundreds of these businesses
which just aren't giving up people are just working as hard as they can to stay afloat.
And it's quite a contrast, really with what you see in the middle of the city,
which is all these corporate chain businesses that have just shut up shot and moved down.
How are you, you ok? – Wa alaikum as-salam, how are you?
He's one of the younger activists.
Basically, you tell me mate.
In this constituency, mate. Yeah? In our parks ...
Ward End park, Adderley park, mate, there's only ...
For the last 25 years, it consists of four swings. Now you tell me ...
With the residents ...
Like large amounts of residents, over 20,000 at a minimum,
how can we have only four swings in Adderley park and Ward End park?
And that's ridiculous.
Hey, it's like rats have eaten them. Yeah, yeah.
the tarmac around the swings, it's dangerous for the children to play in them areas now.
Where's all that money going, lads?
Well what they want to know really the impact of Covid on the community of Alum Rock.
Mate, Covid's just arrived now in the last five months – Last year.
You know what I mean? Let's not talk about problems that have arisen recently,
let's talk about ongoing issues, you know what I mean.
Poverty and austerity made Alum rock vulnerable to the pandemic
but so did something else:
the fact that people here live more communally and collectively.
We drove up through the city into the north of Birmingham.
Yeah, I like it here.
Look at this, used to be a pub, now a maccas [McDonald's].
Palatial maccas.
I am actually quite interested in what and how people are here are voting
because you and I know from experience that places that look like this
are the sort of places that decide elections, aren't they?
Look at them all here. I mean these are ...
Shoppers car park, should we do it? – Yeah.
Shopping precincts and parades are a staple of where we've gone to ask people
about life and politics.
Very often it feels like there's a direct relationship with the state of places in
and a kind of fatalistic political view that's become very familiar.
We were just driving through and we saw this, right.
Yeah. – So what's happened here?
It's all closed down due to the Covid, mostly.
It has gone down over the last few years.
How do you feel about it?
To be truthful, I don't come up here unless I have to.
But you used to presumably come quite a lot?
Yeah, yeah, every saturday without fail. – Ok.
But it's just gone down the pan hasn't it? Just like everything else.
It's emptied out – It's been sold.
And I think it's Lidl that's bought it.
Lidls all around is one of the ...
So there's a supermarket moving in?
Apparently so but with what's going on, it's when and if, isn't it?
Can I ask you a slightly strange question?
There are elections tomorrow, I don't know whether you you're tuned into that, are you?
Not particularly.
You going to vote? – No.
Really? – No.
But you know when we come out we were doing all clapping for the nurses?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. – And the NHS ...
All the neighbours actually spoke to each other.
You don't do that anymore people just get on with their lives, don't they?
It brought people closer together. – Hmm?
It's brought people a bit closer together. – Yeah, I think it has.
A lot of people, not loads, but a lot of people.
Are you gonna vote tomorrow?
Um...
More than likely, yeah.
Do you know you're gonna vote for? – Oh, I'm not supposed to tell you.
I'll probably just go for Conservatives.
Really? – Yeah.
The area's depressing, you know what I mean?
The area is depressing? – Yeah, yeah, look at the area.
Look at it.
What the parks are all in a mess? – Yeah man, it's fully messed up, fully.
Right. No one's spending any money here?
Nah, everyone's just living, that's it.
Outwardly, we are told the sort of mood at the minute is meant to be quite simple, isn't it?
It's just sort of well we're all going to get vaccinated,
June the 21st it's going to go back to normal
and you know the economy's forecast to grow 5% this year and everything's going gangbusters.
But everywhere we've been, right, it doesn't feel like that, does it?
What it feels like is that everything has changed and it's very unclear how we're going
to put the pieces back together.
I mean it's change, isn't it? So what's that like?
That used to be community center we should look up that.
It turns out the community centre here was demolished many years ago.
The only poster on the local notice board is from 2017.
It's hardly the most downtrodden place we've been
but it feels like it's gradually losing the kind of things that would once have brought people together.
We're back having dinner at the food stall in Alum Rock where we were before
and online it's all going off really.
This is an online hustings for the Birmingham mayoral contest
and the only two candidates in contention really are the Conservatives' Andy Street and Labour's Liam Byrne
who's also the mp for this area.
But east Birmingham risks becoming an oasis of inequality in the middle [inaudible].
Meanwhile on the other line ...
This is our little sort of control center, this is an online meeting hosted by the city council in Birmingham
about surge testing in areas including Alum Rock for the south african variant of Covid.
So there's a real urgency about this.
Just around the corner Alum Rock's local radio station Aap Ki Awaaz is on air.
So if this isn't the definition of grassroots community broadcasting, I don't know what is.
Its broadcasts are at the heart of efforts to
counter people's skepticism about Covid and vaccination.
As-salaam alaikum and very good evening to you all.
Radio Aap Ki Awaaz www.aapkiawaaz.co.uk
For those who haven't gone to the gp or nhs centre I hope you have been
and got your vaccination don't delay.
Safe for your community and safe for your family and i hope you have a good ...
It's now iftar that time during Ramadan when people break their fast.
Most people it seems are at home with their families eating for the first time in many hours.
We did some sort of ...
No not at all, we work for the Guardian we make videos for the Guardian.
Can I be in it? – What do you want to say?
What do you want me to say?
I want to know how life is here at the minute for you?
We're all good here, around.
And like everybody gets along uh but then you get the odd policing that use their rights.
I've been stopped by police once, which was a bystander
who actually got the record in footage of me .
Before the recording right?
The officers for nothing handcuffed me, shoved me up the wall
trying to abduct me in the car, do you know what I mean?
Until the guy put his camera phone out.
And then you got the youths of the area ain't got no places to go
ain't got no... If you go around to the parks, the facilities are all shambles.
They're burnt you know what I mean? And if you go out of town
out into different area codes, you see that they've got youth clubs there.
What about jobs? A lot of people we met today were talking about young people and jobs particularly?
So like imagine a young kid ... It's like myself.
I've wanted to get into Cadbury's for months and months.
I've even took a five-day course, do you know what I mean?
I've applied for the job three or four times but you're only accepting agency workers.
I wouldn't say I've been let down by the system but the system has let people down.
After all that it was no surprise to learn that he didn't have any trust in vaccination or much else.
The defining thing about the mayoral election was probably less that the Tory's Andy Street won
than how distant the contest felt to most people we met off.
Total tumbleweed.
It's not really where it's at, is it? – But it never is.
Like so much else we'd seen on this trip, polling day felt like one more empty space .
Wow, wow indeed.
But the final empty space we saw in Erdington brought us a hopeful ending.
These old swimming baths have been empty for four years but we're meeting two local activists
who are working to turn the building into a new community space
that'll help local people to start businesses.
We've been working on this before the pandemic, but actually
given everything that happened in the economy and people looking for ... I think home work
There's a lot to be said for home work ... – There is.
But I think people want to also come out and meet others.
Yes. People have been had to use innovation because they might have lost their jobs
so they think might think they have a go at setting something up
that they're passionate about.
Wow, so this is this is one possible answer to the fact that town centres are empty now?
Absolutely, absolutely.
What they want to is to bring people who want to start their own businesses
into the middle of town. – Yeah, yeah.
We're proposing that there'll be a creche there .
Because they're not going to get a job in John Lewis or Debenhams now, right?
Well I don't ... I don't know.
I don't know. Yes, yes. – Well given that they're closing that's probably right.
The power of the people, really.
I always say because people don't know they've got a power.
They don't need it to be released, they've got it but sometimes
it's been suppressed.
I know it'll happen because I can see it.
You know, it's in there.
It may look slightly different but I just want it to be thriving.
It's a job of work, though init?
But why would you not want to try?
Thanks a lot, see you. – Stay safe.
I used to come here for my swimming lessons. – Did you??
I can't believe that it's been taken out because I loved coming, it's childhood memories.
It's like a piece of my past is gone, honestly.
They're gonna turn it into a sort of business incubator so people
can have like hot desk, start businesses here. – Right.
There'll be an event space in here, a cafe. – That would be interesting.
If there's anyway I can help offer them my services ...
You should get in touch . Witton lodge they're called. W-i-t-t-o-n lodge community.
They're based in ...
I mean it's in the last two or three years, right? Whenever we do a story
we find an organizsation on the ground that's sort of doing interesting stuff.
The reason we do it is because if you're talking about making society better
it just tells you how to do it much more convincingly than I hear 99% of politicians do it.
It's election day today but part of me thinks that's almost irrelevant when you see something like this.
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