Everybody Needs Good Neighbours

When their inner city neighbourhoods were taken over by criminal gangs and prostitutes, residents of two of Birmingham's most deprived areas decided to take a stand, as Ed Reed reports:

"Welcome to Lee Bank. Birmingham's Slum Quarter." As Bill Clinton's motorcade swept past the huge homemade advertising hoarding on its way into England's second city, that probably wasn't the greeting the US president expected.

A handful of residents had decided to battle the gang culture, no-go streets and chronic drug problems of a crumbling inner city sink estate they still proudly called home. That stark advert, as well as rooftop protests in Lee Bank a short time earlier from besieged locals wanting to save their decaying community, was the ultimate embarrassment for Birmingham City Council.

Officials were forced to carry out more than a token £1.75 million worth of repairs each year on the estate's huge tower blocks and flats. The hard-core of residents achieved a success beyond their wildest dreams and their home just a couple of minute's walk south of the city centre now resembles a huge building site thanks to £50 million worth of repairs and construction.

Back in the 1950s and 60s it was all so different when the host of tower blocks were first built. Warrens of back-to-back homes were flattened to make way for the gleaming skyscrapers and leafy green spaces. But through the 1970s and 80s any grand vision of ‘towers in the park' became a dystopian nightmare of community planning. Gangs haunted the little woods while any sense of community in the crumbling high-rises gave way to paranoia.

"People were living with rodent infestations in houses just literally falling to pieces because repairs weren't being done."

Where once celebrities such as Crossroads actress Noelle Gordon had coveted the airy penthouses on the 30th floor of the tower blocks, no law-abiding citizens wanted to live in them by the 1990s. And as the adjoining city centre became ever-more wealthy, the area of Attwood Green encompassing five estates including Lee Bank, missed out on any kind of gentrification.

Ironically, the area sits right next door to one of the city's richest suburbs - Edgbaston. While most residents clamoured to move off the estate, a handful vowed to make their home a better place to live. And just two - Steve Austin and Natalie Brade - were instrumental in negotiations which brought about the vast changes today.

Margaret Millard, 59, was also involved in the talks as well as participating in the rooftop protests drawing attention to locals' plight. Margaret, who has lived on the estate for 48 years, negotiated the massive stock transfer of council homes to a community-led housing association called Optima. Seven of Optima's 15 board directors are tenants.

Streets with names like Newhope Close are rising from the rubble of the old. 1,150 properties are being refurbished (including the two 30-storey tower blocks) 1,350 decrepit homes flattened and 2,000 homes built for private sale as well as 550 homes for rent.

Margaret remembers the troubled years vividly: "When I first moved on here people queued to get into it and by the end they queued to get off. Morale was absolutely rock bottom. There was no hope."

Her loyalty and pride in the area typifies that of the older generation who fondly remember the good days. "I didn't want to move. It's an ideal situation here. We are so close to town and road and rail links and it's a lovely area."

The estate decayed inexorably over the decades. She paints an apocalyptic picture: "People were living with rodent infestations in houses just literally falling to pieces because repairs weren't being done." The massively deprived area was in freefall. Then, in the mid- 1990s Birmingham City Council decided to place problem families within a five-mile radius of their Housing offices. Attwood Green took the bulk of them.

That's when locals took their stand. "All we hoped for when we started the protests was that the council would do some repairs and maybe make the flats and maisonettes a bit more habitable," explains Margaret. Yet they were staggered by the success of their appeals.

Walking round the estate, it's clear a new era has dawned. Rickman Drive, once the centre of the infamous slum quarter, is now unrecognisable with stylish mews-style homes. More important than the physical aspect, life is getting better, too. In 2000, unemployment levels in Attwood Green hit 31.4 per cent. By July 2005 that figure had dropped to 12.9 per cent. Crime has dropped to 15 per cent.

Carol Woolley, 63, is chairman of Lee Bank Residents Association and one of those heavily involved in the huge regeneration. She was born and bred in the area. "I have seen the first regeneration and now the second regeneration. We lived in the old backto- backs at the very beginning when I was young.

"Of course over the years it changed and they started to put in drug dealers and ex cons and the poor people that had come out of the mental health system to be care in the community. And there was a little bunch of us that stuck it out. Although people ran it down this was still our home."

Just a short drive up the road from Attwood Green lies Balsall Heath - hit by the tornado last year and which sits in the top 10 per cent of the most deprived areas of England.

It too has had its problems and without the tens of millions of pounds in funding enjoyed by Attwood Green, residents are tackling problems in a very different way. Without massive cash injections, locals are taking grass roots action to knit the community together and make it a safer place to live.

"And there was a little bunch of us that stuck it out. Although people ran it down this was still our home."

Balsall Heath Community Forum is housed in a little wooden building which, out of character with the area, is surrounded by trees and greenery and could be mistaken at first glance for a garden centre.

Patrick Wing works for the forum. "Balsall Heath was most well-known 10 years ago for being the red light district. There were 2,500 prostitutes a night at its peak causing misery for everyone in the area." Locals took a stand. "Residents took to the streets, stood on street corners and prevented prostitutes from plying their trade and it reduced virtually overnight."

The forum is overseen by Dr Dick Atkinson who helped create the Policy Action Team which formed the roots of the Government's Social Exclusion Unit. "It was about building things up from the bottom and delivering services, not top down, but bottom up," explains Patrick. "I don't think you'll see us running the park service or being responsible for all the waste management but we can help with it. We can help to keep the streets clean and the parks safe in a major way."

Edna is a good neighbour volunteer - someone responsible for looking after a network of streets. She spends time urging householders to keep their gardens tidy and checks on older and vulnerable citizens. Meanwhile, Sanjeer Duggal works for the forum, helping people that need rubbish picked up and planting flowers.

Now, things are very different for this two of many who grew sick of the stigma of living in a forgotten district.