‘I feel like a stranger in my own town'

A burly young man with blond hair and an Eastern European accent is towering over me and yelling with incandescent rage. Expletives are raining down on to my upturned face. I am a f---ing fascist. I am twisting the f---ing truth. He hopes something f---ing awful happens to me.
For a moment, I think he might punch me with one of his pale, meaty fists, but instead, he turns and strides off along the high street. A woman hurries over to check on me. I confirm I'm a little shaken but otherwise alright.
'What a nutter; I'm sorry that happened to you. It's just another day in Erdington,' she mutters with a tight smile before patting my arm and returning to her shopping.
Just another day in Erdington; I soon discover the power and poignancy in her understatement for myself. I have come to this outer suburb of Birmingham in a quest to understand why a sense of belonging appears to be waning among many in Britain.
Conscious of public concern about uncontrolled migration, Sir Keir Starmer warned earlier this month that Britain could become 'an island of strangers' if the issue isn't tackled. A survey carried out by More in Common pollsters revealed that nationwide, 44 per cent of people already feel like strangers in their own country. But immigration was far from the sole reason; the cost-of-living crisis, the shift to working from home and the decline of town centres were also cited.
The Midlands in particular scores highly for a sense of deep isolation and further number crunching by The Telegraph's data team has identified this relatively distant suburb of Birmingham as a place where divisions could be rife.
One in five residents was born overseas but it is also a Reform UK stronghold, helped by the party's hardline stance on immigration.
As I soon discover, though, feeling like a stranger in your own community is far more complex than simple divisions – real or perceived – rooted in race or language. The myriad challenges faced by the people of Erdington are those experienced in many down-at-heel places across Britain.
'We all feel like strangers here because this place is unrecognisable, there are far too many people from different cultures,' says Sean Halloran, 59, a former gardener and more recently a family carer. 'People don't integrate and they should. I'm not being racist, it's just a fact; anyone who comes to Britain should contribute – should want to contribute.
'Britain should be proud to offer asylum to genuine refugees but how come when you watch TV footage, it's women and children and tiny babies desperately needing help when most of the small boats that come across the Channel are filled with men in their 20s and 30s?'
Halloran describes himself as a lifelong Labour supporter but adds: 'If things keep going like this, next time I'll vote Reform.'
The constituency of Erdington is four miles north east of Birmingham city centre and at first glance is a mix of demographics. There are smart newbuilds and grotty terraces with rusting satellite dishes, a gleaming leisure centre and run-down pubs. The independent Highclare School is just opposite the Lidl. But deprivation runs through it like with a stick of rock.
It is the High Street that tells the story of Erdington best. Marks & Spencer closed down years ago. The Boots is gone. The bank is now a branch of Domino's. In their stead Raja Exotics, Mammas African Kitchen and the Hungarian Market. The B23 Express sets out its stall: Sklep Magazin Obchod Parduotuve, its sign reads.
'I am going to move out before my little girl is born,' says Charlotte, 28, an office worker seven months pregnant with her first baby. 'At my hospital midwife appointments I'm often the only white person there; so yes, I do very much feel like a stranger in this town.
'I couldn't send her to school here – I want her to be brought up with British values. People come to this country and don't respect our way of life; they turn to crime and have made it feel very unsafe. I wouldn't dream of going out late at night.'
It would be easy to categorise – castigate – the entire local British-born population as racist. Easy but inaccurate. The truth – differently unpalatable and depressing – is more nuanced.
Gavin Johnson, whose parents are from Jamaica and St Kitts, has lived in the area for most of his life. He wrinkles his nose and shakes his head when I ask about racial tensions.
'This is not a friendly place but it's nothing to do with race or nationality. I was born in London, I'm as British as they come,' says the unemployed 35-year-old. 'Nobody speaks to anybody, there's no community. People just rush in and out of their houses and ignore everyone else.'
Later, I talk to 34-year-old Ibrahim from Iraq. In the two years he's been here, he has never once experienced any hint of racism. There are other issues blighting his experience, however.
'Erdington would be OK without all the violence on the street,' he observes flatly. 'I work hard, I pay my taxes but all the problems make it hard to live here.'
Overwhelmingly, local people's concerns – fears – are reflected by the deeply unpleasant encounter I had earlier in the street. Was the man who threatened me drunk, on drugs?
Who knows? But what I can say with certainty is that from the moment I arrived, I was genuinely appalled by the number of addicts and alcoholics wandering the main streets of Erdington – at 10am. The first three or four people I spoke to had no teeth.
Conservative voter and mother-of-two Allison Singer is of mixed heritage. The 43-year-old office worker embraces the multiculturalism but despairs of a town now a shadow of its former self.
'There's all sort of criminality going on in broad daylight,' she says. 'It's become really rough here because people have been getting away with it, which attracts more trouble. I can see myself voting for Reform in future because something needs to change.'
I live in east London: I'm not unfamiliar with the sketchy side of life. But to see so many unkempt men and a few women, cheeks hollowed out, clutching cans and reeking of weed, was shocking. Some were openly begging.
'This place is crawling with crackheads,' shop worker Lucy Hayes, 23, tells me bluntly. 'This area has always had people coming to settle here, in particular the Irish – that's not the issue. It's the way criminals have taken over and are bringing the place down. There's no sense of community anymore, which is a real shame.'
The reason for the distress and outright anger of local people is that they feel Erdington has become a 'dumping ground' for refugees, ex-prisoners and those with mental health issues – of all nationalities.
They are put up in HMOs – houses in multiple occupation – and the area has seen an explosion of these properties. Last month, the Home Office formally called on landlords to house asylum seekers in a bid to reduce hotel bills.
'You get this group of men who show each other how to make the most of the benefits system and who take drugs and become desensitised to antisocial behaviour,' says Jonathan Sheldon, 35, a former jeweller turned stay-at-home dad. 'It can end in disaster.'
Erdington already has 180 HMOs, a number branded excessive by local Labour MP Paulette Hamilton, who has pledged to oppose all further applications. She 'made it her mission' to bring a halt to the 'misery' they cause families as well as the way they alter the character of neighbourhoods.
'We cannot afford to keep sacrificing family homes and neighbourhood stability for the sake of profit-driven developments,' she told Birmingham Live in February. 'They bring increased crime, antisocial behaviour and strain on already overstretched resources. To anyone thinking of opening yet another HMO in Erdington, the message from locals is loud and clear: no more are welcome here.'
But it's hard not to conclude that the damage has already been done. Erdington already appears to be mired in misery, its citizens bewildered and, yes, estranged by the pace and direction of change. At City Meats in Wilton Market, a butcher, who asks not to be named, admits that shoplifting is rife.
'They come in, pick up entire trays of meat and run away again,' he says. 'We don't just lose the stock, we also have to replace the metal trays, which they just bin somewhere.'
He tells me that when he was a boy, Erdington High Street was known as the Golden Mile and was a bona fide shopping and leisure destination with two picture houses and leading retailers including Littlewoods and Woolworths.
'There was a saying that if you couldn't get it on the Golden Mile you couldn't get it anywhere,' he smiles nostalgically. 'Nobody comes here now, especially not older people. Why would they?'
Why indeed, unless to cause trouble? Crime reached such a high point last year that in January 2025, Operation Fearless was launched by police in the town centre in a bid to reduce shoplifting, drug dealing and violence.
A dedicated team including a sergeant and six uniformed officers have overseen more than 140 arrests and seized contraband off the streets including an arsenal of dangerous weapons and illegal drugs worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.
For all that success, there are no bobbies on the beat today. If there were, I might not have had to endure such a frightening confrontation.
Erdington ward Tory councillor Robert Alden, who is also leader of the Conservative Group on Birmingham city council, reckons that for all its difficulties, community links are thriving in Erdington, which is, according to him, 'a great place to live'.
He also tells me about something far more worrying than the town's HMOs: the unchecked proliferation of 'exempt accommodation'. This is an unregulated form of supported housing for tenants such as rough sleepers, prison leavers and refugees.
Unlike HMOs, they are exempt from planning permission: they are supposed to provide support but very often they don't.
'A two or three-bedroom house in a terrace that should house a family can be converted into a six to seven-bed, often very poor-quality, accommodation for a transient population. It hurts communities and it needs to stop,' says Alden. 'We need to be able to say, 'No, that's not suitable here.''
He asked West Midlands Mayor Richard Parker to write to the Government requesting that exempt accommodation be brought under the planning system. That could only be a good thing for Erdington.
But Alden has other ambitions too: namely tackling the dismal, dangerous High Street. 'We don't need so many takeaways, off-licences and empty units,' he says, a doleful observation that could be made of countless town centres across Britain.
'Out-of-town retail parks have hit the town but if we remodel the street and introduce leisure activities it will encourage people to spend more time here and will draw more independent shops.'
But first, they must feel safe. To that end, Alden is campaigning to have Erdington's police station reopened. To my casual eye it seems crazy, shameful that it isn't; slap-bang in the middle of this increasingly lawless town and yet permanently shuttered.
Meanwhile, locals are reluctant to linger at the shops for fear of harassment. Begging is par for the course, confides Pamela Gibbins, 68.
'Don't get me wrong, I'm a charitable person but I hate it when people hassle me for money,' she says. 'There's too much thieving and alcohol and drug abuse.
'Do I feel like I am a stranger in Erdington? Yes, I certainly don't feel I belong in a place where I'm preyed upon every time I want to pick up some groceries. There are so many out-of-control people it sometimes feels like we are on the verge of civil war.'
Additional reporting by Ben Butcher
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