This seat was a Labour-Tory marginal in the late 1980s. The combination of skilled and partly-skilled manual employees, larger than average proportion of council house tenants and council house buyers was good Thatcherite territory, but it has proved good for Blairism too.
This seat is at the northern extremity of the mostly industrial conurbation that comprises the West Midlands, and although the south Staffordshire countryside is close at hand it is industry that still dominates the landscape. Wolverhampton is one of the principal manufacturing centres in the West Midlands, and the workforce of North East is mostly made up of skilled and partly-skilled manual employees.
Wolverhampton has a high proportion of homes (40% at the time of the 1991 census) which are council-rented, and before the last election a new policy of ‘lopping and topping’ was adopted. Tower blocks would literally be cut in half and have new roofs installed. The buildings that were left have been transformed into warden-controlled sheltered accommodation for the elderly.