'I've not seen the candidates but they want my vote'

The role of West Midlands Mayor has little purpose in Coventry, Janet Urquhart said.

The ‘social supermarket’ in Holbrooks is bustling – food is being cooked on site, some collected, some enjoyed with friends over lunch.

It’s not a food bank in the traditional sense. Each product is sold at a reduced rate, partly to take away the stigma of a free food label, but also to ensure families in Coventry get the helping hand they need.

The service at Holbrooks Community Centre remains as busy as when I last visited in 2022.

But you really do sense the election of a new mayor for the West Midlands – or any elected official for that matter - is not a topic of conversation over today’s generous helping of spaghetti bol.

To be blunt, people here said there was a disconnect between what politicans promise and what they deliver, geographically and metaphorically.

The role of West Midlands Mayor has little purpose in Coventry, Janet Urquhart said.

“I’ve not seen the candidates or had their leaflets through, yet they want my vote," she said.

“Coventry is detached because when they talk about West Midlands they stop at Solihull. When you hear about regeneration, it’s always Birmingham. We never hear about Coventry and the city is in dire straits.”

Holbrooks Community Centre hosts a social supermarket with reduced price food for its residents

Holbrooks is about 3 miles (5 km) north-west of Coventry's city centre and was largely developed for private and council housing during the 1950s.

The role of the West Midlands Mayor, created in 2017, was to represent the interests of people living in Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, Walsall and Wolverhampton.

The aim was to create jobs, improve skills, build homes and make it easier to travel.

Kathleen Barnes describes herself as someone who ‘doesn’t do politics’ but said the cost of living was showing little signs of abating for working families.

“They keep giving you things in one hand and taking it back in another.

"It’s not only people on benefits that are struggling, it’s people on low wages, they don’t get recognised. Young couples, for example, can’t find places to live and rents have gone up so high.”

‘Fiona’ is sitting on a table nearby. She does not want to be identified because of the sensitivities around her family’s social care.

She has a son with a range of complex disabilities. She recalled the feeling of almost losing him to social services because she could not access support and had been told there were shortages of early help social workers.

She wants to vote for someone who truly understands the need for social care reform – to keep families like hers together.

“Without the support of special needs schools, social workers and their care packages, I would not have my son now.

“We have been through everything with him.

“It is really stressful. Without the right people in the right places to help these families, more children will end up in residential care. I’d like the mayor to get involved in upskilling and recruiting good social workers," she said.

Michelle Williams thinks the politicians need to talk to people more to understand their daily struggles

Marcus Swinburn, a volunteer at the centre, said he rarely voted but if he did he’d like more youth activities provided in Coventry for young people.

“That and sorting out potholes for once and for all," he added.

Here, those working to help others have themselves benefited from the support on offer.

Michelle Williams, a mother of three and project worker at Holbrooks Community Care Association, said the next mayor must come and talk to people more.

She works 28 hours a week but has come to rely on the centre’s supermarket and after her partner lost his job last August.

“I think they [the politicians] live different lives to us. I don’t believe they really understand what it’s like to struggle and what it is to have minus figures in your bank.

“It would be nice to have someone who has been through the same trials and tribulations as the rest of us. It’s very easy to sit in your ivory tower and dish out orders.”

A mile away on Parkgate Road, Sinead Rose is preparing a floral order at Oak and Lillies Florist.

She’s a young entrepreneur who kept the business going through Covid, having watched retailers on the same street fold after losing custom.

In the city centre, about 60 premises are closed.

While she’d like the mayor to take control of business rates, and reduce them, her focus is on social cohesion – or her perceived lack of it.

“I don’t think young people around my age think about it [politics] enough.

“They’re not educated enough about the powers the mayor can have but I don’t think those officials can help young people generally.

“My concern as I look through the window, and talk to people, is a lack of respect from young people living in the area to the older generation – the people who made this area the great place it is.”

Mark Stewart of Trophyme wants politicians to get behind small businesses

Regeneration in Holbrooks, as in many city surburbs of its size, has been fragmented.

But on the 65 acre-site of the former Meggitt aerospace factory, a new business park has emerged with 31 industrial units alongside hundreds of new homes.

It’s a blueprint for regeneration, using public and private cash to redevelop a brownfield site.

Here, the West Midlands Combined Authority pumped £24m into the development.

A cluster of small businesses have already moved in, including Trophyme, a medals manufacturer which relocated from a small shop nearby and has taken on more staff.

Mark Stewart, director of Trophyme, said now is the time for the mayor and other politicians to really get behind small business, and help reduce bureaucracy.

“You could create a localised hub that could help.

"There are certain problems I am encountering when we’re having to look at government websites and you don’t always get the answer. If we can create local ways to connect and you can solve these problems as a team.”

Holbrooks is indeed a place of connections – with now long-established networks supporting the most vulnerable in the community, and a suburb reinvigorated by new homes and businesses.

Holbrook Park is a new business park in the area, partly funded by the West Midlands Combined Authority