Housing and Environment
Localities and neighbourhoods
Why is it important?
The quality of the built and natural environment, such as the local neighbourhoods, access to local shops, services, parks and green spaces, affect the health and wellbeing of everyone.
What is the local picture? How does it compare?
Satisfaction with the local area is lower than the city average, with some indication that residents in Hillfields feel that it has become a worse area to live in. According to the Coventry Household Survey 2022, 39% of people surveyed in Hillfields were satisfied with local area as a place to live. This is 26 percentage points lower than the satisfaction rate of 65% recorded in the 2018 survey and lower than the overall satisfaction level recorded for Coventry (66%). 42% of people surveyed in Hillfields thought their area had got worse to live in, this was higher than the Coventry average of 28%.
Hillfields lacks greenspace, with below-average provision compared to the rest of Coventry. The Green Space Strategy 2019 -2024 shows there is considerable variation in the amount of green space by ward across Coventry, the average per ward is 62.3 hectares. Hillfields is in St Michael’s ward where there is only 29.6 hectares of green space, a relatively low coverage. Across the city, the average level of provision is 3.05 hectares per 1,000 population and in St Michael’s there is only 0.86 hectares of green space per 1,000 population, the 3rd lowest coverage per head out of the 18 Coventry wards. The table below shows the green space quantity by type and ward.
Most scores for St Michael’s are below average, with natural and semi natural greenspace, green corridor and unrestricted outdoor sports facilities scoring zero.
Table: Green space quantity by primary type and Coventry ward, hectares per 1,000 population
Source: Coventry Green Space Strategy 2019-2024, Coventry City Council
Hillfields has poorer air quality than is average for Coventry neighbourhoods. Air pollution is the largest environmental risk to the public’s health and has a harmful impact on the health of people living, working, and studying within Coventry. Like many towns and cities throughout the UK, roadside pollution levels, especially those resulting from nitrogen dioxide (NO2) emissions from traffic and Particulate Matter (PM), are a concern. Poor air quality affects different communities disproportionately, some areas in Coventry do not achieve the EU and international standards. Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is one of the pollutants of concern, and ‘diffusion tubes’ are deployed to measure levels at various roadside locations in Coventry, in 2022, 75 locations were measured, five of which were situated in Hillfields, all 5 had levels below the then recommended 40 µg/m3 of NO2. A more stringent 10 µg/m3 guideline level was introduced recently. None of the sites measured in this area, or any other area in the city, have met this standard, all are measured at an average above 10. As with all other sites measured across the city, the levels measured reduced between 2019 and 2022.
The local measurements from these 5 diffusion tubes are not the very highest in the city and an alternative measure, estimated annual NO2 levels by neighbourhood presented in the ‘Shape Atlas’ tool from the Department of Health and Social Care, also indicates NO2 levels to be higher than average for the city but not the very highest. This source does indicate NO2 levels to be higher than the national average across the whole city, however, each neighbourhood in Hillfields is estimated to have levels amongst the highest 20% in the country. The same source also estimates Particulate Matter (PM) and Sulphur Dioxide (SO2) levels to the higher than the average for Coventry neighbourhoods.
Residents in Hillfields are less likely to have access to a car. The Census 2021 recorded that only 50% of households in Hillfields have access to a car or a van, lower than that recorded for the Coventry average 72.4% and the England average of 76.4%.
Comparing this insight to the air quality data summarised above indicates an inequality, Hillfields has a high proportion of people who don’t use cars regularly but also has many neighbourhoods where the population is subjected to poorer than average air quality.
What else is happening? What else can be done?
Despite lower levels of car ownership in Hillfields, traffic was identified as a particular problem for the area. Residents were also concerned about the environmental and safety impacts of the traffic problem. More traffic can lead to higher air and noise pollution levels, negatively affecting the health and well-being of the community. Traffic congestion also increases the risk of accidents, particularly in areas with schools, parks, and high pedestrian activity, posing a significant safety concern.
“Road works every where causes traffic jam that increase pollution.”
“Keep the streets cleaner and more attractive to businesses”
Residents in Hillfields are concerned about the lack of attractive green spaces, with vandalism and litter being key issues. Green spaces are essential for fostering community cohesion, combating loneliness, and addressing environmental challenges like pollution, noise, heat, and flooding.
To improve these areas, residents suggest involving school children in maintaining green spaces through activities like tree planting and litter clean-ups, fostering environmental responsibility. Boosting recycling incentives, such as deposit-return schemes, could also help reduce litter. Additionally, protecting greenbelt land from development is seen as crucial for preserving limited green spaces and ensuring long-term environmental benefits for the community.
“Involve school children. Let them provide the ideas. Let children's voices be heard. Advertise what has already been achieved!”
“Boost incentives for recycling - including cash options (machines) where people can return their own plastic bottles, cans etc in exchange for cash. Partners with businesses to achieve this.”
Residents in Hillfields have been working with the Council and Citizen to tackle fly-tipping. People who live in Vernon Close, Brook Close, Vauxhall Close, Gilbert Close, Days Close and Spring Close had ongoing concerns about an area around their homes which has become a fly-tipping hotspot. The clean-up was done in response to customer feedback demonstrating the council’s commitment to reducing anti-social behaviour across our communities so that residents have a cleaner environment to live in. The project forms part of a wider plan to invest in the St Michael's Estate, Hillfields. The Neighbourhood Plan will ensure that all stakeholder partners are working together in the planning and delivery of the project that includes tackling Anti-Social Behaviour, Building Safety and improving green spaces within the community.
The area could be improved by ensuring that the local environment is clean and attractive for residents which will encourage people to enjoy their local spaces. Due to the limited amount of green space in the area residents feel it is vital for the council to maintain the parks, fields, and open spaces
Coventry University Group is a partner of the Clean Futures Innovation Accelerator. Clean Futures will develop the West Midland’s innovation ecosystem - helping to drive economic growth, increase industry engagement and accelerate the commercialisation of SMEs in the region. It will support the development of the transport sector in the West Midlands, enabling the transition of manufacturing and associated supply chains from fossil-fuelled solutions to clean-tech.
Housing and homelessness
Why is this important?
Historically, housing is only considered in relation to health in terms of support to help vulnerable people to live healthy, independent lives and reduce the pressure on families and carers. However, it is now recognised that good quality housing for all leads to better health and wellbeing, as it indirectly affects early years outcomes, educational achievement, economic prosperity and community safety.
Conversely, rough sleeping and homelessness significantly impacts on a person’s mental and physical health, and the longer someone experiences rough sleeping, the more likely they will develop additional mental and physical health needs, develop substance misuse issues and have contact with the criminal justice system.
What is the local picture? How does it compare?
Home ownership is significantly lower than average and private and social renting is higher in Hillfields to the Coventry average. The 2021 Census showed that in Hillfields overall less than a quarter (22.2%) of households are owner occupied (either owned outright or with a mortgage) compared to 57.4% in Coventry. 41.7% of households in Hillfields are privately rented compared to the Coventry average of 24.7%. 35.3% of households are socially rented, much higher than the city average of 17.0%. This data counts private households, it does not include student halls of residence, of which there are some in the area, they are classed as communal establishments.
A large proportion of private households in Hillfields are terraced houses or flats. 45.4% of households are terraced houses (Coventry average 39.9%) and a relatively high proportion of households are a part of purpose-built blocks of flats or tenements, making up 27.6% of households (Coventry 15.7%). There are relatively few detached or semi-detached households, making up 7.5% (Coventry 11.6%) and 14.7% of households (Coventry 30.0%).
House prices in Hillfields are lower than the Coventry average. House Price Statistics for Small Areas (HPSSAs), produced by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) shows that in September 2022, the median house price in Hillfields £143,500 was lower than the Coventry median average of £214,000.
In 2021 median house prices in Hillfields were £130,000 indicating a 10% increase from September 2021 – September 2022. This increase was in the upper quartile for all Coventry areas. However, the median house price £143,500 remains relatively low, the second lowest price recorded for an MSOA in Coventry in September 2022.
A high proportion of households in Hillfields are classed as overcrowded. The 2021 Census revealed that 16.9% of households, more than one in every six, were overcrowded in Hillfields compared to 7.7% in Coventry. Overcrowding is twice as common here than is average for the city, Hillfields overcrowding rates are amongst the highest of all Coventry’s neighbourhoods. A house is defined as overcrowded if there are too few rooms for the number of occupants based on standards of a minimum number of common rooms and bedrooms needed for the size and composition of the household.
The 2021 Census showed that there are 4,400 households in Hillfields, 3% of the 134,100 households in Coventry. 29.3% of households in Hillfields have 4 or more people in them compared to the Coventry average of 23.1%. While only 40.7% of households in Hillfields had 3 or more bedrooms compared to Coventry’s average of 64.6%.
Fuel poverty, which is influenced by energy prices, incomes, and housing quality, is high in Hillfields. This is measured using 2021 data, a time before the significant increase in energy bills impacted on households. In 2021 fuel poverty was more prevalent in Coventry than in the region or England, Coventry had the 4th highest fuel poverty rate of all local authority areas in England. The Coventry average was 20.8% and the England average was 13.1%. 42.5% households in Hillfields were estimated to be in fuel poverty, more than double the Coventry average, amongst the highest rates of all neighbourhoods in the city. It is likely rates have increased since then as the impact of the cost-of-living crisis on communities across the city is yet to be fully realised, as people face rapidly rising energy, fuel, food and housing costs.
The city has high and increasing levels of homelessness, and Hillfields has particularly high levels, as indicated by data on homelessness applications from Coventry City Council. In 2022/23 there were 153 homelessness applications made to Coventry City Council from people living in Hillfields, a significant increase from the 63 applications made in 2018/19. These are people who made an application and were assessed as being homeless or at risk or being becoming homeless and assigned to the area based on their last settled address. The rate of homelessness or at risk of becoming homelessness per 1,000 households in Hillfields was 35.1 in 2022/23, significantly higher than the overall city rate of 14.6 and the highest rate out of all Coventry areas. The trends in the area are similar to those for the city overall, increasing and notably higher than four years previously before the pandemic, 2018/19.
What else is happening? What else can be done?
Social housing provides long term homes that enable people to settle, residents raised concerns about the system in acquiring accommodation, the quality of the homes and the types of people that are entitled to them.
Better social housing contributes to stronger, healthier, and more equitable communities which benefit health outcomes for its residents and society.
Citizen Housing are working with Coventry City Council and their customers to develop a neighbourhood plan for the area. The neighbourhood plan aims to help identify key issues and to develop actions which address these issues and improve local services. Citizen are responsible for 750 homes in the area and Coventry City Council is responsible for services such as street cleaning, so by working together to create the plan, they aim to help make improvements to Hillfields. The plan includes objectives such as improving community safety, maintaining homes, and improving them to a good standard, and building on existing partnerships with residents.
Threats to health and wellbeing are exacerbated by the increased costs associated with keeping homes warm, dry, and ventilated sufficiently over the colder months of the year and potential intermittent shortages in energy supply. Cold homes are recognised as a source of both physical and mental ill health, increasing the risk of heart attack and stroke, respiratory illness, falls and accidents.
The Council has been proactive in supporting the most vulnerable residents access support through a series of initiatives. Coventry City Council have commissioned local energy charity Act on Energy to deliver its Keeping Coventry Warm Scheme. Keeping Coventry Warm provides Coventry residents with free energy saving advice and information.
The household support fund is also a way to provide residents with support for essentials linked to energy and water in recognition that a range of costs may arise that directly affect a households’ ability to afford or access food energy and water.
Crime and community safety
Why is this important?
Being a victim of crime, and being worried about crime, impacts on a person’s perception of their quality of life in the neighbourhood and has a negative effect on a person’s mental and physical wellbeing.
What is the local picture? How does it compare?
The crime rate in Hillfields is significantly higher than the average crime rate in Coventry. It is higher than all other neighbourhoods in the city, only lower than the city centre, and ranks highly compared to other neighbourhoods for most type of crime, particularly for violent crime. The recorded crime rate per 1,000 of the population in 2022/23 was 209.0 significantly higher than the Coventry average rate of 124.6. The crime rate in the area has been on an increasing trend, as it has for the whole city; the total number of crimes recorded in Hillfields in 2022/23 was almost double the 2017/18 levels, 97% higher compared to the Coventry overall increase of 65%. The scale of increase in Hillfields over that time was one of the greatest of all Coventry’s neighbourhoods. The number of recorded crimes and anti-social behaviour incidents in 2022/23 in Hillfields increased to 3,012 from 2,729 in 2021/22, a 10.4% increase.
The top three categories of crime reported in Hillfields 2022/23 were: Violence and sexual offences (accounting for 42% of all crime and antisocial behaviour), Vehicle crime (9% of all) and public order crimes (8%).
The main reason for the overall rise in crime in the last 5 years is that there have been more crimes recorded under the category ‘Violence and sexual offences’. This pattern is true for Hillfields as well as for the whole of Coventry; in 2022/23, 1,267 crimes in this category were recorded in this area. What stands out is, although crime rates in this area are above the city average for most types of crime, the gap between violent crime rates in this area and the city average is bigger than for other types of crime; the rate of ‘Violence and sexual offences’ is especially high at 94.3 per 1,000 population compared to 51.6 for the whole of Coventry.
There were 79 incidents of Hate Crime recorded in Hillfields between September 2022 and October 2023, this indicates it is significantly more prevalent than the Coventry average in this area, amounting to a rate of 5.9 per 1,000 residents compared to 2.8 for Coventry overall.
The Coventry Serious Violence Strategic Needs Assessment 2023 highlights St. Michael’s ward, which include Hillfields and other areas, as having relatively high rates of knife crime, gun crime and possession of weapons in 2022/23. Although the volume of such crimes is relatively small among the total recorded ‘Violence and sexual offences’ in the area, the rates for all of these are highest out of all Coventry’s 18 wards in St. Michael’s, with 178 knife crimes, 19 gun crimes and 228 possession of weapons crimes recorded in 2022/23. While this is for all of St. Michaels ward and not all of these crimes would have been in Hillfields, this give a strong indication that rates of serious violence are high in Hillfields. The number of all of these crimes have been on an increasing trend since 20219/20.
The proportion of residents in Hillfields who feel safe during both the day and night is significantly lower than the Coventry average. In the 2022 Household Survey, only 60% of residents surveyed in Hillfields felt safe during day compared to the Coventry average of 77%. This has been a significant decrease from the 2018 survey where 93% of residents in Hillfields felt safe in the day. 40% of residents surveyed said they felt safe after dark in their local area this is also lower than the Coventry average of 45% and 61% in 2018 survey.
What else is happening? What else can be done?
Residents have reported that they felt unsafe around The Closes, Hillfields, and the area was untidy with rubbish. Coventry City Council and Citizen worked together to undertake a co-ordinated programme of fly-tipping removal, tree canopy thinning and cutting back of shrubs. This has resulted in the area being cleaner and improved street lighting is better illuminating previously darkened areas. Residents have reported that this is a considerable improvement. The council and Citizen Teams are now systematically reviewing land ownership and responsibilities around The Closes, to identify collaborative opportunities to further improve the environment.
Key partner agencies who work in Hillfields have come together to help make it a safer place to live and work. West Midlands Police, Coventry City Council and housing association Citizen all employ a range of people who work in Hillfields and have created the #OurHillfields partnership to combine and focus their resources to tackle the things that matter most to the local community. Established in 2019, the West Midlands Violence Reduction Unit (WM VRU) is a partnership organisation that sits within the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner. It aims to reduce and prevent violent crime across the region. It benefits from the expertise of partners in public health, criminal justice, sports, education, and policing to tackle the root causes of violence and support communities most affected by violence. The WM VRU has commissioned projects such as Early Years Protective Behaviours programmes, school and community-based youth mentoring, and domestic abuse prevention campaigns.