🚨BREAKING: HMOs in West Midlands are linked to 35% of local murders. • A BirminghamLive investigation found that 35 per cent of homicides recorded by West Midlands Police in the last two years, most of them in Birmingham, took place in or involved residents of supported exempt accommodation and HMOs. • That amounts to 56 out of 151 murders across the force area over the period. • Birmingham is the national hotspot for the state-funded exempt sector, with more than 13,000 properties housing 34,000 people, most of whom have no local connection to the city. • Claims of more than £400 a week per person are paid by the Department for Work and Pensions, and the sector is now worth £450 million a year in the city. • One example showed the government paying £6,400 a month for four people in a terraced house that would normally rent for around £1,200.