Halesowen and Rowley Regis gain from Conservative NEW SEAT 0 ( 0.0%) 16,029 (32.9%) 26,366 (54.1%) 4,169 ( 8.5%) 0 ( 0.0%) 2,197 ( 4.5%) 66,245 48,761 (73.6%) NEW SEAT NEW SEAT 125 ( 0.2%) 24,306 (44.7%) 24,181 (44.5%) 5,384 ( 9.9%) 0 ( 0.0%) 452 ( 0.8%) Conservative 68,414 54,323 (79.4%) -11.9% +9.6% -1.4% +0.0% +3.7% -3.2% -5.8% A new constituency has been created in the south-western part of the West Midlands conurbation for the 1997 election - and it looks one of the closest in the country (at least had it existed in 1992). The Boundary Commission decided to bring together parts of the two boroughs of Dudley and Sandwell for the first time. Halesowen comes in from Dudley and Rowley Regis from Sandwell. The two parts to this new marginal have different characteristics, as their constituencies of origin imply. Halesowen is a prosperous town on the edge of the West Midlands conurbation, with very few non-white residents, and previously part of the safe Conservative Halesowen and Stourbridge seat. Rowley Regis by contrast was in the safe Labour Warley West seat, now abolished as Warley is unified. The two parts of the seat are comparable in electorate and would almost exactly have balanced each out in 1992. the best estimates are that a Tory would have crept home then, perhaps by about 125 votes - but it really is too close to call. This means that in 1997 Labour must be confident of winning this Halesowen and Rowley Regis seat, unless all the opinion polls and most of the pundits are hopelessly wrong; surely they are likely to do at least a little better than five years ago. 1,190 3.18 9.03 35 2,875 7.67 11.17 69 5,858 15.63 11.25 139 4,366 11.65 14.70 79 621 1.66 10.45 16 0 0.00 2.81 0 1,570 4.19 8.01 52 13,635 36.39 15.25 239 4,344 11.59 7.13 163 3,011 8.04 10.17 79