A city at migration breaking point: An unvarnished dispatch from Coventry - which saw over 22,000 arrivals from overseas in a single year - exposes how housing, schools and GPs are being placed under unbearable strain
Outside the accident and emergency department in Coventry is a man in a wheelchair.
Outside the accident and emergency department in Coventry is a man in a wheelchair. He is in a pitiful state. His legs and feet are swollen, causing him intense pain, but more than anything else, he is exhausted.
His trip to A&E began the previous day when he spent six hours hoping to see a doctor before giving up and asking his father to drive him home, says liver patient Colin, 39.
He returned on Wednesday morning – when we encountered him – only to be told another 13-hour wait lay ahead.
The reason is self-evident from the scene in the waiting room, which is full to bursting.
The staff are doing their best and they do a marvellous job, but the NHS needs more money and more staff, he said. Its as simple as that. It cannot cope with our increasing population in Coventry.
More than one in four Coventry residents were born outside the UK and one in seven (almost 50,000 people) have arrived since 2011
Coventry was one of the fastest growing cities in the year to June 2023, with a net population increase of 14,538
Liver patient Colin, 39, said: The NHS needs more money and more staff. Its as simple as that. It cannot cope with our increasing population in Coventry (stock image)
Colin, a scaffolder, was still waiting when we left.
Behind Colins marathon visit to A&E is another story – particularly prescient in the circumstances – that is not always reported and often dismissed or derided in certain circles, if it is.
Britains population grew 1 per cent, or 662,400, to 68.2 million in the year to June 2023 – the largest increase in 75 years – the Office for National Statistics revealed last week.
The annual increase was fuelled mostly by net migration.
Many will be surprised to learn Coventrys population was one of the fastest growing among UK cities in this period, exceeded only – London aside – by Birmingham and Manchester. A total of 22,366 people arrived here from abroad, while just 7,828 left.
The result? A net increase of 14,538. Thats a town about the size of Ripon in North Yorkshire.
The statistics behind the headline figures are compelling. More than one in four Coventry residents were born outside the UK and one in seven (almost 50,000 people) have arrived since 2011.
Coventry, in other words, has been transformed in plain sight down the years.
Mass migration in Coventry (population about 350,000) has had an impact on almost every aspect of life in the city, which is an inconvenient truth many on the Left would rather turn a blind eye to – instead, any discussion is painted as bigoted.
Having spent the past week here, the reality is hard to ignore.
There are GP surgeries under pressure with as many as 3,000 patients per doctor at some – the UK average is roughly 2,300. People who go to A&E can wait 15 hours. There are schools where up to 40 different languages are spoken and temporary bulge classrooms set up to take extra pupils.
Si Jones told the Mail on Sunday he arrived at University Hospital (seen) at midnight and only 15 hours later finally got to see a doctor
Coventry was known as Motor City when the UK had the worlds second largest car-making industry, home to Jaguar, Chrysler, and Peugeot in its 1960s and 1970s heyday
More than 9,000 households are on the local authority social housing register and ever more green-belt land is being swallowed to alleviate the accommodation crisis.
Multi-culturalism in some areas of Coventry means Afghans, say, living next to Iraqis. In one ward over a quarter of households have no one with English as their mother tongue – which can do little to enhance social cohesion.
Coventry was known as Motor City when the UK had the worlds second largest car-making industry, home to Jaguar, Chrysler, and Peugeot in its 1960s and 1970s heyday. Its recent history is that of Britain in microcosm.
The main ethnic groups in the former industrial powerhouse are from India, Poland, Romania and Pakistan, which make up a third of the population, but there are others from all corners of the globe.
Coventry also attracts the highest proportion of international students across its two universities – Coventry University and the University of Warwick – of any city in the UK. Many migrants and refugees work at the giant Amazon warehouse here.
Their contribution, doing the jobs many Britons do not want to do, should not be underestimated. Nevertheless, people we spoke to say the numbers arriving are putting an intolerable strain on local services.
In March, 1,368 asylum seekers were receiving financial support in Coventry, the fourth most of any local authority in England. The council did not provide us with a more up-to-date figure. However, one GP practice in the city specialises in treating only asylum seekers and refugees.
Crowds gather around Little Amal in the city in 2020
The artwork had the intention of celebrating migration and was walked 8,000km from the boarder of Syria across Turkey, Greece, Italy, France, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium and the UK to focus attention on the urgent needs of young refugees
Its patient list of 4,000 includes victims of torture, rape and female genital mutilation.
One, Aya Jabbar, 31, a midwife in her native Baghdad, left war-ravaged Iraq five years ago for a better and safer life in Britain. She lives in Coventry with her mother Nidhial, her non-English speaking grandmother and four siblings.
We love living here. Both me and my mother want jobs, but cant find work, and were struggling to manage on the benefits we get, she says.
The surgery has one full-time and two part-time GPs, two nurses and interpreters.
A hotel on the outskirts of the city is one of the places used to house asylum seekers who occupy four of nine floors. Four young men from Africa who arrived in Coventry in the past seven months were in the lobby when we visited. They said they were happy and being treated well. Another hotel in the city centre is also believed to be housing up to 200 migrants.
To put this into context, countrywide, nearly 30,000 migrants are staying in more than 250 hotels at a cost to the taxpayer of £4.2 million per day.
The GP surgery treating asylum seekers and refugees is in Foleshill, one of the most deprived wards in Coventry, where 80 per cent of residents identify as being part of an ethnic minority.
The shopping parade – Al Quds Butchery, Aladdins shisha lounge, Yosuf Bakery, Selam Cafe, Peshmerga Food Store – reflects this.
Foleshill consists of rows of terraced houses, where no one in more than a quarter of households has English as their main language.
How might this affect community relations?
The Coventry Hill Hotel, which began housing asylum seekers in 2020
A recent council survey states the city remains cohesive, but the number of people who said their neighbourhood is a place where people get on well together had noticeably reduced.
Some residents, both of British and non-British origin, expressed frustration at the number of new arrivals.
Wasam Mohammed came to Coventry from Pakistan more than 20 years ago. My British partner was living here and sponsored me, explained the father of four.
I got a job as a salesman for a grocery company, quickly learned the language and I have now been promoted to team leader, he said, adding: There are too many immigrants here now and many dont speak English and dont work. They are a drain on the system.
His views were shared by a white British mother of two in her late 50s who did not wish to be named. She said the influx had had a huge knock-on effect on locals.
I have lived in Coventry most of my life and I have never seen so many people living here, she says. Our city simply doesnt have enough space for everyone.
In a different part of the ward, underneath a Crimestoppers notice on a lamp-post urging the public to help make Our Hillfields better and safer is a bunch of flowers wrapped in cellophane – presumably in memory of a life lost. Hillfields is an area which has been plagued by gang violence.
We spoke to a young man who arrived here two years ago after joining his aunt on a rescue flight out of Afghanistan, leaving his parents and siblings behind in Kabul. Meeting him is a humbling experience. Now a fluent English speaker, he lives with extended family in Coventry and says that he is very happy here.
Building work in a rural part of Coventry has been called a "warzone" due to the level of development going on
He said that at the school hed attended only about 15 per cent were white British. Most pupils were from Afghanistan, Pakistan and India – usual across the city.
Since 2019, Cardinal Wiseman Catholic School, for example, has worked with the local authoritys Ethnic Minority Achievement Service to create a sixth-form course for pupils with little English.
The rapidly expanding provision for asylum seekers and refugees from Iraq and Syria, highlighted in a feature in the Coventry Evening Telegraph, has changed the schools whole ethos.
Almost six in ten pupils had an ethnic minority background with 40 languages spoken and 42 per cent of children speaking English as an additional language. At other schools, migrant pupils parents are sent a link to Google Translate when their children enrol.
The overall school population has shot up by 1,500 in two years.
At Moat House Primary, a prefabricated block was built in January to house an extra 30 pupils. At least six other bulge classes have been installed in city schools.
The strain on health services, not just schools, by the influx of migrants was raised by Councillor David Welsh at a meeting last year when he was cabinet member for housing and communities.
Further arrivals will require... additional health provision, for which the source of funding is unclear, said the councillor, who has since resigned.
Coventrys recent history is that of Britain in microcosm. A street with shops representing multiple corners of the world is pictured
I cannot stress enough that the issue we have is not with the people that would be placed at Quadrant Hall [former student accommodation], many of whom are fleeing terrible circumstances. Our issue is with the unfair Home Office system that sees cities like Coventry take far more than our share, placing added pressure on an already overstretched local support system with no recurring funding to help pay for it.
The problems faced by some of the citys overburdened GP surgeries were laid bare on Facebook by resident Mel Gregory, whose husband suffered blood clots and high blood pressure, although a non-smoker.
Hes been ignored, she said in a blistering post. Ive made repeated phone calls [to the surgery] and we are told to call 111 [the number for urgent out-of-hours care].
He works full-time, pays into the system yet cannot get a five-minute appointment with his own doctor. How is that right?
How is being triaged by a receptionist... through a window ok? Who gave these receptionists their medical degree?
The crisis is unlikely to abate with thousands of new homes going up on the green belt.
One scheme to build 2,500 houses at Kings Hill in Stoneleigh on the outskirts of Coventry has already caused alarm in the NHS.
During the consultation process, South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust revealed the strain the development would put on local hospitals, including Coventry.
It calculated 5,750 new residents would generate 13,800 interventions a year for the Trust, which needed a rise in available beds to cope with the population increase.
The healthcare provided by the Trust would be significantly delayed and compromised, putting the local people at risk if that didnt happen, the Trust warned.
Another development has already started in Bennetts Road in the suburbs of Coventry. There were green fields as far as the eye could see, said Gillian Collinge, a former Home Office official.
Today the once idyllic vista is scarred by a brutal two-metre-high security fence just feet from the back gardens of their homes, which have names such as Springfield Cottage, Lilac House and Harefield.
Beyond the metal perimeter are diggers, mud, noise and men in high-viz jackets.
Its absolutely heartbreaking, added Gillian, who lives next to the chaos with husband Peter, also 66, a retired software engineer.
The building site – until just over a year ago a green-belt haven for wildlife – is now the location for 3,200 new houses. More than 500 have already sprung up.
A climate protest crowding Broadgate in 2021
We dont need more houses, we need less people, declared one resident in the comment section of the local evening paper.
Residents are worried the extra housing wont be matched by infrastructure improvements. The developers insist they will be.
Local campaigner Ann Evans is not convinced. We havent seen any evidence of it yet, she said.
Mother-of-two Sarah Brown and her husband Thomas moved into their detached four-bedroom house in 2018 and used to enjoy stroking the horses that grazed in the fields behind their property.
We can and should give asylum to those in need but as we build more homes, we also need to put more infrastructure in, such as new schools, new surgeries, hospitals and everything else, she says.
Without better infrastructure, how can peoples lives around here not be impacted?
You can lift planning restrictions and build all the houses you want, but without the appropriate infrastructure, it is going to cause problems.
Back at A&E at University Hospital Coventry, Si Jones tells us he arrived at midnight and only now, 15 hours later, has he eventually got to see a doctor.
Its rammed in there, said the 24-year-old, who had passed out after a dizzy spell. There are too many people and not enough staff.
Is it any wonder so many think something has gone badly wrong?
Additional reporting: Nic North and Tim Stewart
