Midlands GRIT – Week Ending 26 June 2026
Another week, another reminder that Birmingham never really sleeps. It simply changes the subject. Before anything else, thank you. The early indicators suggest our readership continues to grow, which is hugely encouraging. Every reader who shares an article, recommends Midlands GRIT to a friend or joins the growing number of subscribers helps prove there is still an appetite for long-form journalism that asks awkward questions and refuses to settle for easy answers. If you haven’t yet subscribed, please do. It’s completely free, although there is a modest paid option for those who want a little extra while helping support independent journalism. However you choose to read us, thank you for being part of the journey.
This week took us from Britain’s biggest mutual to Birmingham’s commissioner machine, from the quiet takeover of our high streets to schools closing in the heat, before finishing with one of the most revealing political interviews I’ve conducted for some time. Five stories, five very different subjects, but each asking the same question: who really makes the decisions that shape our lives, and are they properly accountable for them?
Monday – Dame Rich Knickers and the Mutual That Forgot the Pub
The building society movement began in Birmingham, not inside a corporate headquarters but in the Golden Cross Inn on Snow Hill, where ordinary people pooled their savings so ordinary people could own homes. Two hundred and fifty years later, Nationwide Building Society found itself defending a chief executive’s remuneration package worth around £4.7 million. Nobody seriously argues that running an organisation of Nationwide’s size should be poorly rewarded, but if the society insists it remains fundamentally different from an ordinary bank then members are entitled to ask whether its governance still feels different too. The candidacy of James Sherwin-Smith, one of the few member-nominated candidates to reach a ballot in recent years, together with the Board’s recommended “Quick Vote”, prompted a broader question than executive pay ever could. Richard Ketley built a movement around participation. Two and a half centuries later, do members still genuinely own their mutual, or have they quietly become customers with voting rights they rarely exercise?
Tuesday – Lord Hutton and the Pension Elephant
Birmingham’s commissioner era continues to pose uncomfortable questions about transparency and accountability. Lord John Hutton arrived with unrivalled experience of public-sector pensions, making the research by Professors John Clancy and David Bailey into potential overpayments to the West Midlands Pension Fund particularly difficult to ignore. The Pension Fund disputes those criticisms and deserves every opportunity to make its case, but taxpayers are equally entitled to understand whether concerns were raised, what advice was sought, what advice was given and what work was ultimately delivered. If Birmingham purchased expertise, residents have every right to know precisely what they received in return. Accountability should never be viewed as an attack. It is simply what democracy looks like when large sums of public money are involved.
Wednesday – Who Owns Birmingham Now?
Walk down almost any Birmingham high street and everything still looks reassuringly familiar. The same dentist welcomes patients, the same vet still knows your dog’s name, the pharmacy remains open and the nursery continues to care for local children. Yet increasingly the ownership sits somewhere else entirely, tucked away inside investment funds, private equity portfolios and corporate structures that most of us will never encounter. Investment itself is not the villain of this story. Birmingham has always depended on outside capital and always will. The real question is whether we’ve stopped giving investment ambitious things to build and instead encouraged it simply to buy what already exists. Once Birmingham persuaded investors to create exhibition centres, concert halls and developments like Brindleyplace because civic leaders from different political parties shared a vision for the city’s future. Today it often seems easier to purchase chains of dentists, vets and funeral directors than build new industries. Over the coming months Midlands GRIT will investigate just how much of Birmingham’s everyday economy has quietly changed hands.
Thursday – When the School Gates Close, Birmingham Pays
Sometimes a story begins not with a dramatic political row but with a cancelled appointment. Mine did. The person I was due to meet could no longer attend because their school had closed during the recent spell of hot weather. Government guidance generally advises schools to remain open while managing the risks sensibly, yet closures still occurred and their consequences spread far beyond the classroom. Parents lost working hours, employers rearranged shifts, appointments disappeared and children who would otherwise have spent the day in school found themselves elsewhere. Risk does not disappear when school gates close. It simply moves. That prompted a straightforward question. Did the risk assessments consider only the conditions inside the school building, or did they also weigh the wider impact on families, employers, children and the city itself? Birmingham deserves to understand not only why those decisions were made, but how they were reached.
Friday – Coffee with Nicky Brennan
Many political interviews begin with the argument of the week. This one easily could have done. Birmingham Labour has lost control of the council, the city remains under commissioners and Nicky Brennan’s first weeks as Labour Group Leader have already generated controversy over Reform UK, scrutiny committee chairs and criticism from within her own party. Yet sitting together over coffee in Birmingham city centre, the more compelling story soon became the person rather than the politics. Brennan spoke candidly about becoming a mother at sixteen, surviving domestic abuse, studying through enormous personal challenges and later dedicating much of her career to helping women facing similar circumstances. She reflected on the impact services such as Sure Start had on her own life and why she believes Labour changed her future. Of course we also discussed the difficult political questions—candidate selection, her narrow leadership victory, Reform UK and Birmingham’s future—but what stayed with me afterwards was something much simpler. Behind the political headlines is someone whose views have been shaped by experience rather than slogans. Readers will reach their own conclusions about her leadership. My job was to introduce them to the person before asking them to judge the politician.
That was Midlands GRIT this week: five stories, five very different subjects and, I hope, five reasons to look at Birmingham a little differently. Next week we’ll keep digging, keep asking awkward questions and keep following the evidence wherever it leads. Thank you once again for reading, for sharing our work and for helping independent journalism grow. Have a wonderful weekend, and I’ll see you again on Monday.