Andy Burnham
Mayor of Greater ManchesterArguing that Greater Manchester’s resurgence proves devolution can outpace Westminster dysfunction, Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, sets out why “Manchesterism” offers a practical model for good growth that could rebalance the entire UK economy.
For much of my early education and career, I lived with a truth familiar to so many born in the North during the 60s and 70s: if you wanted to get on, you had to go South. That was the unwritten rule of British life for decades. Yet today, something remarkable has happened in Greater Manchester. For the first time in my lifetime, the flow has reversed. Young people are choosing to come here – not leave – drawn by opportunity, affordability, culture, and a political model designed with them in mind.
In 2024, 13,000 people left London for Greater Manchester, compared with 11,800 heading in the opposite direction*. This shift didn’t happen by accident. It happened because, over the last decade, we’ve been quietly building a very different kind of politics – one I call Manchesterism. It’s rooted not in ideology but in place: a system built collaboratively, designed to respond to real lives rather than the games that dominate national politics. It stands in stark contrast to the dysfunctional, centralised, short-term Westminster system that has shaped British politics for far too long.
A Decade of Devolution – and Double the Growth
When Greater Manchester negotiated its first devolution deal ten years ago, we gained something Westminster had long denied us: the ability to set high ambitions and achieve them. Since then, our economy has grown at roughly twice the national rate, averaging around 3 per cent a year.
Why? Because when you empower places to shape their own future, they thrive. When you trust local leaders to know their communities, they deliver long-term, grounded change.
Through devolution, we became more functional as the country became more dysfunctional. We collaborated instead of competing. We intervened rather than leaving things to chance. Most importantly, we refused to accept limits on how high we could aim.
Our vision remains simple: good growth for good lives – unlocking investment to create homes, good jobs, and the infrastructure people need to live well.
What Manchesterism Really Means
Manchesterism is a distinct economic and political model rooted in devolution, long-term planning, and good growth. It’s both a way of governing and a strategy for rebuilding a modern industrial economy.
It is not a slogan. It is a system – a deliberate response to the high inequality, low growth trap Britain fell into from the 1980s onwards, when power was overcentralised in Westminster and key public institutions were fragmented or privatised.
Through Manchesterism, we reject that old model. We reject trickle-down economics – the belief that if you let a few places or people flourish, the benefits will eventually reach everyone else. In Greater Manchester, we know that has never worked. Real change requires intervention: fixing what national politics ignored – housing, transport, education, low pay, and insecurity – across every single borough of our city region.
How Manchesterism Works
Westminster politics thrives on short-termism – policies designed to firefight today’s crises rather than invest in tomorrow’s stability. We’ve taken the opposite approach. We’re planning for where we want our region to be by the middle of the century, and we are already delivering on that vision.
Through devolution, we now have some local control over the essential drivers of the economy: housing, utilities, transport, and education. We’re starting to tackle the consequences of deregulation, privatisation, austerity, and Brexit – decades of decisions that left the UK unable to guarantee reliable infrastructure and forced people and businesses to pay more for basics.
Devolution can enable a new model of public services based on integration and collaboration rather than fragmentation and competition. The Bee Network – our fully integrated public transport system – is a clear example. We brought buses back under local control for the first time in 40 years, on time and on budget, delivering a more affordable, reliable, and efficient network for residents.
And it’s not just transport. Devolution needs to go further: education, housing, and health are all areas where we need more tools to meet our greater ambition, enabling us to do what we know works best for our people.
A New Era of Re-industrialisation
Manchesterism has never been just about Manchester. Our mission is to deliver a new decade of good growth that reaches every part of our city region through clusters of productivity and innovation – and offers something to the rest of the country.
This requires a more assertive, confident approach to investment. We don’t wait for the market to back places and plans; we build a pipeline of projects and actively seek the right investor partners.
Our city centre has been transformed over the last two decades, with dense clusters of high-productivity businesses and professional services being traded across the world, combined with universities and the research infrastructure needed to support an innovation-led economy. And we’re now building an innovation-led, reindustrialised Greater Manchester around five key sectors: creative media; digital and tech; life sciences; advanced materials and manufacturing; and clean energy. Each of these clusters has a physical presence tied to a specific place, with projects already being delivered and infrastructure being built, like Atom Valley in Rochdale.
Our investments – through devolved funding, prudent local borrowing, and unlocking pension fund capital – have laid the foundations for long-term ambition. They provide the certainty and direction the private sector needs to come in behind us and help take our plans to scale.
But attracting investment also means choosing partners who share our values: who believe economic progress and social progress go hand in hand; who back good growth and deliver social value; who help recycle wealth back into communities rather than extract it.
To make this growth real for everyone, we also need clear pathways into good, secure jobs for young people. We are shaping a local skills system where every young person can see a direct line from their education to the opportunities our businesses are creating, and we need further devolution to fully realise those opportunities.
Analysis shows that another decade of ambitious, devolved growth could make Greater Manchester’s economy a third larger than it is today – adding £38 billion to national growth. But this must be growth that everyone feels, in every community.
This is why Manchesterism matters. It is not just a local project; it is a blueprint for a fairer, more ambitious way of doing things that can benefit the whole country.
This article features in the new edition of ChamberUK. Our parliamentary journal.
Photo Credit: Office of Andy Burnham