Halesowen and Rowley Regis was a House of Commons constituency[n 1] in the West Midlands represented in the UK Parliament from 1997 until 2024.[n 2]
By the decision of the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, the seat was abolished and replaced by the new Halesowen constituency with similar boundaries except for Rowley Regis and Blackheath transferred to the new seats of West Bromwich and Smethwick respectively. All new seats were contested for the first time at the 2024 general election.[2]
Halesowen and Rowley Regis straddled the borders of Dudley and Sandwell.[n 3] It covered the south-east part of the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley.
1997–2010: The Metropolitan Borough of Dudley wards of Belle Vale and Hasbury, Halesowen North, Halesowen South, and Hayley Green, and the Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell wards of Blackheath, Cradley Heath and Old Hill, and Rowley.
2010–2024: The Metropolitan Borough of Dudley wards of Belle Vale, Halesowen North, Halesowen South, and Hayley Green and Cradley South, and the Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell wards of Blackheath, Cradley Heath and Old Hill, and Rowley.
The constituency was formed for the 1997 general election, taking in the eastern part of the former Halesowen and Stourbridge constituency[n 4] and the western part of the former Warley West seat. Halesowen and Stourbridge had been held by a Conservative but Labour candidates took its two replacements in 1997.[n 5]
The area formerly in the Halesowen and Stourbridge constituency is in the Dudley borough, while the area formerly in Warley West is within the Sandwell borough (which in turn had formed part of the boroughs of Warley and originally Rowley Regis).
From 1997 until she stood down before the 2010 general election, the seat's MP was Sylvia Heal of the Labour Party. Heal held Mid Staffordshire from a 1990 by-election until she was defeated by the Conservatives in 1992. On becoming the MP for Halesowen and Rowley Regis, she gained more than half of the votes in 1997 and 2001, before her popularity dipped slightly in 2005, still managing to hold on to the constituency comfortably.
James Morris of the Conservative Party won the seat in the 2010 general election. With approximately half of the constituency situated within Sandwell borough, it was the first time that any part of the borough had been represented by a Conservative MP since its creation in 1974.[4] Morris was voted by the local party as Conservative candidate for the seat after previous candidate Nigel Hastilow stepped down in November 2007 following a public outcry over his claims that Enoch Powell's Rivers of Blood speech had been proven correct.[5]