The latest employment figures for January 2013 were published on Wednesday.
The fall in the headline rate of UK unemployment is clearly welcome news. But here in Northfield the number of people unemployed in January was actually up on the previous month.
The child poverty figures published today paint a stark picture.
One in five British children live below the poverty line. Across Birmingham it is up to three in ten – and in parts of the constituency it is as high as four in ten. This poverty cripples a child’s chance to lead a happy and healthy life and makes it so much harder for them to reach their potential.
My letter to Birmingham City Council Leader, Sir Albert Bore and Cabinet Member for Jobs & Skills, Councillor Tahir Ali regarding the Birmingham Jobs Fund:
18 February 2013
Dear Albert and Tahir,
I wonder if you or relevant officers could answer some queries I have about the Birmingham Jobs Fund?
Chuka Umunna, Labour’s Shadow Business Secretary, was in Birmingham today.
I am delighted he was able to pay a visit to local West Heath manufacturer, Graves Aircraft Components, during the day.
The front page of today’s Bromsgrove Standard features the important story of one of my younger constituents, Sam from Rednal, now aged four. Sam was born with an undiagnosed heart condition. Fortunately he received a pulse oximetry test when he was born, which was being trialled at Birmingham Women’s Hospital at the time. The test picked up his heart condition and three days later he underwent …
As you may have seen in the local news, yesterday the trustees of the MG Rover trust fund visited the Acorns hospice in Selly Oak to officially present Acorns with a donation of £23,000.
This comes at the end of the long and sad saga of the trust fund set up for former MG Rover workers when the company collapsed in 2005.
I was Labour Member of Parliament for Birmingham Northfield between 1992 and 2019 and a former Shadow Transport Minister. I now chair Healthwatch in Birmingham and Solihull, and the West Midlands Board of Remembering Srebrenica. I also work as a public affairs consultant. I am an effective community advocate and stakeholder alliance builder with a passion for human rights. I am a trustee of the Balfour Project charity and of Citizens Advice Birmingham, and a former Chair of Medical Aid for Palestinians.