Dear readers — welcome to your Monday briefing. A landmark warehouse in Digbeth went up in flames yesterday after a pile of rubbish caught alight. Samuel was there in minutes and then went digging in the land registry to see what he could uncover. His findings lead to a lot more questions — see below.
We also have an exclusive, involving over a thousand patients who may have been harmed as a result of treatment delays overseen by a troubled Birmingham NHS trust. “I feel so let down by them,” says one frustrated patient. That story, by health reporter Michele Paduano, is in today’s Brum in Brief.
Elsewhere, while Birmingham grapples with the olfactory impact of the bin strikes, Selly Oak MP Al Carns is busy voluntarily inhaling a potentially dangerous gas in preparation for a trek up Everest. More on that, below.
Catch up and coming up:
- Did you catch CBSO's groundbreaking grime collaboration on Saturday? Read Kate’s Saturday story for the background.
- Kate was a busy bee last week (as she is every week); outside The Dispatch, you might have spotted her byline in The Guardian, explaining how Birmingham keeps being used as a political football, while residents are let down. Check it out here.
- Samuel’s BMAG feud continues; he remained unimpressed by their recent Rembrandt exhibition. Some called his review “well rounded and thoughtful.” Others said it was “Brummie bashing”. Have your say, here.
- Know anything interesting about Birmingham’s very own Indian Consulate based at 2 Darnley Road? Email Samuel at sam@birminghamdispatch.co.uk.
The family festival outside Birmingham that celebrates everything outdoors
From today's sponsor: Bearded Theory, a four day camping festival, is returning at the end of May with incredible music and lots of outdoor family activities. Headliners this year include Iggy Pop, Manic Street Preachers and Paul Heaton, and with a sauna box, real ale pubs on site, cinema nights, silent disco, and comedy, there's masses to keep you entertained. Plus, there’s an award-winning children’s village and a Festival School on the Friday (allowing parents to get approved absence from school via pre-enrolment). It's taking place at Catton Park, just 45 minutes' drive from the centre of Birmingham.
See the full line-up and book your tickets here.
To find out about sponsoring future editions of The Dispatch, e-mail Daniel Timms here.
Photo of the week:
Future Systems’s 2003 Selfridges is overshadowed by the construction of the 29 floor Beorma Tower. The tower, which is about half-finished, is owned by the Salhia Real Estate Company. Salhia is a publicly traded Kuwait-based company founded in 1974.
Know anything about Salhia? Send us a message at editor@birminghamdispatch.co.uk.
Brum in brief:
🚒 Alerted by the sound of fire engines and the smell of smoke in his flat, our staff writer Samuel biked down to 54 Bradford Street — a Digbeth landmark, overlooking the Anchor and White Swan pubs. Around the back of the vast warehouse, the West Midlands Fire Service (WMFS) were on the scene. A WMFS officer informed us that the blaze had started because of “a rubbish pile.” Being a Dispatch journalist, this set off Samuel’s story senses, so he’s done a little early morning research. Here’s what he found:
- The huge warehouse, once the offices of Birmingham greengrocer George J. Mason, had been bought for £14.3 million in 2022 by Future High Street Living.
- In 2021, Birmingham City Council granted permission for the structure’s demolition despite objections from the Victorian Society. Future High Street Living (Digbeth) Ltd., founded by the Cannock-based property developer Sam Ginda, recently went into administration, on 26 March.
- According to the Land Registry, the buildings had multiple charges (probably a commercial mortgage) made out to Together Commercial Finance Limited. Ginda has been approached for comment. Familiar with Future High Street Living? Drop Samuel a line at sam@birminghamdispatch.co.uk.
Correction: we previously stated that Future High Street Living Ltd went into administration. Instead, Future High Street Living (Digbeth) Ltd have gone into administration. We've corrected the record.
🚑 Exclusive: The Dispatch can reveal that nearly 1,500 multiple sclerosis patients may have been harmed due to delays in treatment at University Hospitals Birmingham (UHB), an NHS trust. UHB — which has been dogged by complaints about a dysfunctional neurosurgery department and a "toxic” bullying culture — informed NHS England last year that 1,480 MS patients had missed their annual review (a standard, yearly appointment for sufferers of the neurological condition) as a result of capacity issues. A number of patients and their family members took to the Multiple Sclerosis Trust Facebook site earlier this year to vent their frustrations. Amy Jones said “I am so stressed and upset by it. It never used to be like this. I have been under them for 15 years now. I feel so let down by them.”
UHB said it has been working with NHS England and partner organisations for more than four years to deliver a comprehensive MS Service. Updates to treatment and review guidelines have been recommended throughout this time, but resources, specialist clinical availability and capacity has not kept pace. It says it is continuing to try to develop resilient models of care delivery, but this remains challenging in the context of workforce availability and its harm review should be completed this month. NHS England confirmed that UHB is leading the harm review process and that “the NHS specialised services team for the Midlands is being kept informed.” Reporting by Michele Paduano.
⛰️ Where was your MP during the great bin strike of 2025? If you live in Selly Oak, the answer is ‘huffing gas’. Labour rep and former Royal Marine Al Carns was in The Sun last week, talking about his prep for a charity trek up Everest, which includes inhaling xenon gas — an odourless substance which studies have suggested can protect vital organs from altitude sickness. Others call it stupid. “The old adage ‘Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should,’ applies in this context,” mountaineer and longtime Everest chronicler Alan Arnette told Outside magazine. The International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation, a global body that advocates on behalf of climbers, has also condemned the practice in a statement, calling inappropriate use of xenon gas “dangerous.”
🎌 While Carns is on the gas, another Birmingham MP has come under scrutiny for his absence during the bins crisis. Liam Byrne has been accused of abandoning his constituents in Hodge Hill and Solihull by flying out to Tokyo with the House of Commons business committee, two weeks after the all-out strike began. The Telegraph reports that committee chair Byrne, and seven other MPs, stayed at the five star Hotel New Otani and dined at the swish Gonpachi Nishi-Azabu restaurant (famous for appearing in the film Kill Bill). Byrne is thought to have extended his trip for a self-funded personal holiday. Conservative shadow local government secretary Kevin Hollinrake has branded Byrne’s absence a “dereliction of duty” but a spokesperson for Byrne said the MP had carried out important work while away and will return to hold his constituency surgery on Friday (rested and refreshed from those hot springs, no doubt).
🥀 Jess Phillips, MP for Birmingham Yardley and minister for safeguarding, has been widely criticised in the press, by Labour and opposition politicians. This criticism comes after she announced that the Home Office would be cutting back independent nationally-led inquiries into grooming gangs, instead offering council organised ‘victims panels,’ or ‘local audits.’ Labour MPs have reported being ‘besieged’ by angry constituents. Sir Trevor Phillips, the former chair of Britain’s Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), branded the policy “utterly shameful.” In a WhatsApp Group, Labour MP for Stourbridge, Cat Eccles shared an article containing Trevor Phillips’s comments, calling the MP for Yardley’s decision “unhelpful.” Jess Phillips has argued that the Home Office’s proposal will allow: “local authorities [t] access [a] £5 million national fund to support locally-led work on grooming gangs. Following feedback from local authorities, the fund will adopt a flexible approach to support both full independent local inquiries and more bespoke work.”
🦅 The Birmingham Liberal Democrats have announced the hospitalisation of councillor Shabina Bano. Bano, who represents Small Heath ward, has been locked in an ongoing dispute with Birmingham Labour (which she defected from in 2024), over alleged misogyny and bullying. A month ago a standards committee found that Labour councillor Saqib Khan had ‘disrespected’ Bano. Now, the Liberal Democrats have announced that Bano has been admitted to a stroke ward: "following an extended period of severe bullying, harassment, and intimidation experienced within…[the] Birmingham Labour Party.” Constituents in Small Heath have told The Dispatch that Bano’s ward surgeries have been taken over by former Liberal Democrat and Kashmiri People’s Justice Party councillor Shaukat Ali Khan.
🗑️ Birmingham’s bin saga continues. We’re now in the sixth week of the bin strikes. Health secretary Wes Streeting intervened last week, citing health concerns about “rats” and “vermin” to Times Radio. A few days later the BBC was informed that a deal between striking binworkers and Birmingham City Council (BCC) could have been reached, but was ‘derailed’ by national Unite leadership. Some Labour MPs have communicated that a deal could have been reached back in January and February between local leaders and BCC. However, only two out of three depots in the area backed the deal — with the third site influenced by national Unite figures. In response to the prolonged strike, some Birmingham residents are now petitioning the council for tax rebates.
There has been some movement on the strikes. Today, Unite members involved will be balloted on whether they want to end industrial action and accept a deal offered by deputy prime minister Angela Rayner. “I would urge Unite to suspend the action and accept the improved deal,” Rayner has told the union. Unite has called the government’s approach a “disgrace.” Rayner has offered the binworkers what she calls an “improved” offer. Yesterday, the government announced it was drafting in office-based army logistics specialists to help clear the tens of thousands of tonnes of rubbish now lining the streets. This comes after the Independent MP for Perry Barr Ayoub Khan urged the government to ‘deploy the army.’ There are now fears that strikes could spread to six other areas of the country, including Brighton, Sheffield, Coventry, Cumbria, Leeds and the North London borough of Barnet, as local councils cut binworker’s salaries to avoid equal pay claim liabilities.
Quick Hits:
🧑🎨 Fine Art Gallery, Forward, is expanding to new premises on Cannon Street, although an opening date is yet to be confirmed. But they come armed with Warhols.
🌹 Labour have dropped plans for a public inquiry into Birmingham City Council’s £90m IT system roll-out fiasco.
🎓 Coventry University’s future is ‘uncertain’ following the reveal of a £59.3m deficit. Got any tips about what’s going on at Coventry Uni? Email editor@dispatch.co.uk
🥫 Plans for a Northfield Lidl have stalled — for now.
🏗️ Dudley Council is having problems recruiting qualified staff for its regeneration projects because salaries are not competitive enough.
📺 BBC legend Kate Adie reveals the Brummie accent was internally — and unofficially — ranked ‘most hated’ by employees at the broadcaster.
🐀A Labour councillor has quit the party over Birmingham City Council’s newly implemented ‘rat tax’ — which is biting amid the ongoing bin strike.
🗳️Reform UK are experiencing a ‘surge’ of support in Coventry and the West Midlands.
Home of the week
If you’re lucky enough to have £1m, this is your opportunity to buy one of just five homes built by the Bishop John Vesey in Sutton Coldfield in the 16th century. Included: the original, 500 year-old spiral stone staircase.
Spotted in (and around) Brum
In the Jewellery Quarter last week: one of street artist Fokawolf’s provocative pieces in homage to Gen X staple Fight Club’s Tyler Durden? Spotted something strange in Birmingham? Email us at editor@birminghamdispatch.co.uk.
Media picks:
📰 The FT have crunched the numbers on the bin strikes and they’re not pretty. Affluent Brum neighbourhoods (like Edgbaston), they report, can afford private bin collections. Dense urban districts further down the economic totem pole — like Sparkhill — can not, creating rubbish ghettos.
📰 Kenan Malik has gone long in The Guardian, writing about how Islamophobia has contributed to “sectarianism” arising in some British Muslim communities. Birmingham Hall Green and Moseley MP, Tahir Ali gets a special mention for ignoring various domestic problems in favour of “sectarian interests.” Do you agree?
Our to do list
🎨 All week. Catch visual artists Mau Samayoa and Adam Wynn’s exhibit ‘Thresholds’ at the Jewellery Quarter’s BPN Architects. Free entry; 11 April to 2 May. 10am to 4pm.
🎸 A gig? On a Monday? When local festival organisers, Supersonic, sound the call, we have to answer. See sludge metal band Thou at the Castle and Falcon, tickets from £21.50.
🤠 On Thursday, Hockley Social Club goes all yee-haw with a country-themed hoedown. Tickets from £5.50.
🎤 Have a highbrow Friday night as Black Box Theatre hosts poet Isabella Dorta for a reading and open-mic night. Tickets from £21.28.
🎵 Two Noughties greats team up on Saturday as Ashanti and Sean Paul bring their joint tour to the Utilita. Tickets from £56.
☪️ Begin a unique five-part journey into learning how to illuminate manuscripts according to Islamic tradition on Saturday, at MIAH Gallery. This one is costly — £120 — but ticket price covers all five sessions.
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