Recently re-elected Leader of Manchester City Council, Bev Craig, provides insight into how Manchester could serve as a catalyst for nationwide growth. She discusses the key economic policies and initiatives needed to stimulate innovation, attract investment and foster inclusive development across the country.
Councillor Bev Craig
Leader of Manchester City CouncilThe UK’s economy has been stagnating for years, with sluggish growth accompanying entrenched income inequality. Since 2000, the UK has slipped 21 places in the rank of nations by per capita income – the fastest slide of any country in these league tables since 1945. Quite simply, the status quo is unacceptable.
The Need for Change: Addressing Stagnation and Inequality
It’s clear that the UK’s largest cities are not firing on all cylinders, posing both distinct challenges and opportunities. Were the UK’s core cities and their wider regions to match the performance of their European peers, it would boost economic activity by over 20 per cent, adding £100 billion per year (around 5 per cent) to the UK economy in perpetuity.
Manchester’s Transformation: A Model for Urban Renewal and Innovation
Manchester has transformed itself from a struggling post-industrial city to a place that is recognised globally as one of the most vibrant, dynamic, and fastest-growing cities in the world. We’ve seen our population soar from 422,000 in 2001 to 607,000 in 2023. The number of jobs based in the city has similarly increased and our skills base has transformed, with almost half of our population educated to degree level now – compared to just over a quarter in 2004.
Our GDP per capita has increased from £35,739 to £51,330. This has been accompanied by major development and regeneration projects across Spinningfields, Ancoats and New Islington, and Mayfield, to name but a few. With our Economic Plan seeing £11 billion invested over the next decade, creating at least 80,000 jobs.
We have intentionally focused on growing our global strength in high-value, productive sectors, such as digital and tech, health innovation and life sciences, advanced materials, and manufacturing. We are a leading destination for FDI, have an annual £5 billion GVA fintech sector, are the second largest creative industries sector in Europe after London, and have emerging strengths in AI, cyber, and gaming.
Our mission for growing our economy has been rooted in improving opportunities and outcomes for residents and making our city an attractive and great place to live. Investing in prevention, early years, and education means our schools are now outperforming the national average for the first time in our history. We’re reforming public services to tackle multiple disadvantages and our trajectory on social care is exceptionally positive.
As in any urban areas, deep-rooted social challenges remain. Manchester is the sixth most deprived place in the country, with more than 40 per cent of children growing up in poverty, almost a quarter of residents earning below the real living wage, and a gulf in life expectancy between our most and least affluent areas. Our economic strategy is clear that growth must be inclusive – connecting local people with the opportunities created and maximising community benefit. In short, growth must improve people’s life chances.
Empowering Cities for National Growth: A Strategic Vision
The imperative to achieve good growth is vital for both our economy and communities.
Empowered cities can be the supercharged engine to deliver the growth and reform our country needs. We stand ready to deliver at scale, free from the silos of the centre. Local leaders know their places inside out, with the architecture in place to translate the ‘big picture’ thinking into hard deliverables, as the convenors of place. Effectively, city leaders have the unique capacity to operate both as the ‘thinkers’ and the ‘doers’.
In Manchester, our success is built on a long-term strategic approach – an understanding that growth, development, and regeneration take decades, not years, and require a clear vision. To be internationally competitive, we need a long-term National Industrial Strategy with deliverable and dynamic local economic plans that can deliver for the country.
The recognition in Labour’s ‘Power and Partnership’ document that a sectoral economic strategy and place-based economic strategy are two sides of the same coin is welcome, and it is important that we consider the development of our key economic sectors in a bottom-up, place-led way.
In Manchester, we are working to embed our world-leading innovation assets within our wider vision for the built environment and local economy, with the £1.7 billion ID Manchester innovation district being just one example. There is a huge opportunity here if we can nationally harness our research strengths and translate them into the wider manufacturing base. We need to see a future government build on recent positive initiatives, such as the Innovation Accelerator and Investment Zone programmes, further geographically rebalancing R&D spend through devolution to better match to local business needs and the industrial base.
But we also need to tackle the long-term issues around infrastructure. One of the central reasons why our cities have relatively underperformed compared to international peers is that we have grossly underinvested in them, both in terms of public and private investment, and limited our national economic performance.
Rectifying this country’s historic underinvestment is not a quick fix, however, in any fiscal scenario. What is abundantly clear is that we need to use public capital more effectively to leverage long-term institutional finance from the private sector. This will require ambition and improved collaboration between city leaders, national government and arms-length bodies, and private investors – Core Cities UK and the RSA have produced innovative suggestions in this space, as well as 3Ci specifically in the realm of decarbonisation.
From rail travel to housing investment, cities stand ready to deliver. In Manchester alone, our housing pipeline is 36,000 over the next eight years, with 10,000 of those genuinely affordable. In Victoria North alone, we will see over £4 billion invested to build 15,000 new homes across seven neighbourhoods, commercial and retail buildings, a new river city park, and public services. We can deliver, and with government backing, we can accelerate.
The future is bright for the country if we harness and realise the opportunity to rebalance our country, reform public services and see growth in every town and city. This potential can be easily harnessed in our cities as magnets for skills and culture, business and growth, and wellsprings of innovation.
Manchester shows what can be possible if a long-term plan, devolution of power, and momentum to deliver are aligned. Central government can enable and accelerate those opportunities.
This is just one of the articles that features in the new edition of Chamber UK’s pre-election journal. To gain free access to the online version, subscribe here or click below.
