Midland Heart

Yesterday we were joined by our colleagues, tenants, partners, peers and friends, for a celebration of 100 years of Midland Heart at Birmingham Town Hall!   Prof. Carl Chinn MBE told the fascinating story of our history and the development of housing in Birmingham over the last 100 years. West Midlands Mayor, Richard Parker, then took the stage to talk about the challenges facing housing providers in the present. Our guest panellists, Emeritus Professor David Mullins, Deirdre LaBassiere LL.B(Hons) FTLS, Gavin Smart and martin hilditch, Editor of Inside Housing, discussed the ways the sector can rise to these challenges and address the need for more decent, affordable homes in our region, just as the COPEC founders did all those years ago.   Thank you to all of our wonderful guest speakers, and to all who joined us for this celebration of how far we’ve come.   #COPEC100

We're counting down to something very exciting...

In the early 90s, and after a series of mergers in the 70s and 80s, COPEC was renamed Focus Housing Association. Prime Focus was then set up as a new parent company to ensure the organisation continued to provide homes for people and offer related services for the benefit of tenants, staff, and partners. On 1st April 2006, Prime Focus and housing association Keynote Group, came together to form Midland Heart. Nearly 20 years on we have grown to a housing association of 35,000 homes, providing services to over 70,000 tenants. Thank you for joining us on this revisit of our past and we hope you stay with us as we look forward to the future. We’re still committed to the same social purpose as in 1925, and we will continue to work hard to provide decent, affordable homes for local people who need them, just as our founders did.

From 1983, housing associations were encouraged by the Conservative Government to become the main provider of new social housing, rather than councils. Later, the 1988 Housing Act enabled the use of private finance for housing association investment. As a result, COPEC grew exponentially and was reorganised into a group structure with subsidiaries providing low-cost homes for first-time buyers and council tenants. Supported housing schemes were also developed for the homeless, people with mental health issues, the disabled, and women who were victims of domestic violence. It was clear COPEC was committed to working on behalf of those most in need of good housing. 

In the aftermath of Cathy Come Home, the 1974 Housing Act empowered councils to declare housing action areas where there was poor housing and social stress. By the end of the decade, COPEC was active in several housing action areas in the inner-city and managing 3,500 properties. COPEC also developed specific supported housing schemes through its new Special Needs Department. Take a look at COPEC’s offices in Saltley and West Bromwich High Street, well-positioned and alert to the increasing demographic changes happening in the late 70s.

The next stop on our journey is the swinging 60s! Remember ‘Cathy Come Home’? Ken Loach’s portrayal of a family torn apart by homelessness had a profound effect on its audiences. Homelessness moved to the forefront of the public and political agenda, and with the spotlight on the slums, Housing Associations such as Coventry Churches HA, Midland Area HA, Wolverhampton HA, and Birmingham Housing Trust were founded as part of the response.

Today we're looking at 1950s Birmingham, the next chapter in our story. Families who had travelled to England to help repair the damage caused by the war were met with discrimination, with many, including those from Asia, Ireland and the Caribbean, refused accommodation. The lack of available and affordable housing meant that newcomers were forced to live in poor conditions. Families were often left with no choice but to share a single room with another family just to avoid being homeless. COPEC were committed to providing homes for them and worked hard to improve their living conditions and offer them a better quality of life. 

Today we’re taking you further forward in time, looking at the 1930s and 40s and housing in the Midlands during the war years. The Second World War led to a significant loss of COPEC’s stock. COPEC changed from a ‘Public Utility Society’ to an ‘Industrial and Provident Society’, becoming eligible for war damage funding to make emergency repairs. Post-war, COPEC surrendered many of its properties as part of post-war redevelopment but remained a managing agent of those awaiting clearance by the council. Take a look at the larger image below from 1942, showing the aftermath of bomb damage in Long Acre, Birmingham, which is still one of our operating areas 80 years on. 

Did you know, Midland Heart is almost 100 years old? We’ve not always been called Midland Heart, a number of different organisations have developed and merged over the years laying the foundation for us to become the organisation we are today. It’s been 100 years since the Conference on Politics, Economics and Citizenship (COPEC) was held in Birmingham that led to the founding of the COPEC House Improvement Society, the very first version of Midland Heart, in 1925. Since then, we’re proud to have grown from around 200 homes in inner-city Birmingham to over 35,000 across the whole of the Midlands. Over the next week, we're going to take you on a journey through our history and tell the story of how we became Midland Heart.

Yesterday we held our annual Marketplace event, an afternoon of music, art, culture and of course great food, all in celebration of Black History Month! The Marketplace is always a highlight of our Black History Month celebrations and a great way of bringing our teams and tenants together. This year we were joined by tenant and talented painter, Eustace Storrod, who shared more of his phenomenal artwork with colleagues, after kindly gifting us one of his paintings last year. Part of the proceeds of any sales of his paintings will be donated to our corporate charity, Birmingham Mind, supporting those with mental health needs. Throughout the month of October we’ve also been making donations to local foodbanks, giving back to the local communities in which we serve.