Manchester Shows What UK Economic Revival Can Look Like

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The boldest – and most controversial – expression of the council’s pro-business approach was the £1 billion ($1.4 billion) Manchester Life joint venture launched in 2014 between the council and Abu Dhabi United Group, owner of Manchester City Football Club. It transformed Ancoats and New Islington into fashionable neighborhoods but drew criticism for selling public land cheaply to a foreign regime, sometimes on 999-year leases, and for waiving requirements to subsidize public housing.

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Leese is blunt about the trade-offs. “If we’d done what our critics wanted us to do, it wouldn’t have delivered affordable housing, it would have delivered no housing at all,” he told Confidentials, a local website. 

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Still, he acknowledges the scale of poverty in Manchester, which remains among the most deprived parts of the country. Living standards are still a long way behind London. “Faster‑than‑average growth for 30 years, and you’re still 25% behind,” Leese summarizes. 

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Increasingly, Manchester has the power to tackle these problems itself. Over the past decade, successive governments have handed the city-region more authority. Decisions that once sat apart – such as where to build homes, how buses and trains connect, or how education links to local jobs – became easier. “It allows an overarching, joined-up approach to doing things for the benefit of the city,” says Fox.

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Burnham has championed the so‑called Manchester Baccalaureate, a set of subjects aligned with local labor-market demand. He also returned buses to public control – and painted them yellow as a visible reminder of his flagship reform. 

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Then, last year, he managed to change the city’s fiscal settlement so it automatically receives a share of national spending in areas such as transport, housing and adult skills, rather than needing to bid Westminster for specific projects.

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Now, his plans are getting bigger. Last week, Burnham announced a plan to “reindustrialize” the city-region by focusing on five “growth-driving clusters,” including creative industries, green, and life sciences. He calls it “by far and away the most ambitious industrial plan of any UK city, and by far the most coherent.” 

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Other cities – and the national government – will be watching Manchester closely to see if its additional powers and increasingly interventionist approach will help to sustain its boom. It’s a fresh direction since its earlier success stemmed, in part, because it was not tightly planned. 

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Unlike cities built around a dominant employer or sector, the sectoral mix in Greater Manchester broadly mirrors that of the UK as a whole, with no single industry large enough to dictate its fortunes. That diversity has made it more resilient to shocks — from Brexit to the shift to hybrid working – and less vulnerable to the sudden exit of a major employer. “Manchester is a jack of all trades,” says Leese.

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There will be limits to what devolution can fix. The national government’s cancellation of the high-speed rail line north of Birmingham was “a complete hammer blow,” according to Chris Oglesby, chief executive of commercial property firm Bruntwood. Large decisions on tax and infrastructure remain firmly in Westminster’s hands. Manchester also risks becoming a victim of its own success if rents spike. 

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For now, though, the city’s energy is undeniable. Burnham puts it in epochal terms: Manchester “had a great 19th century, a pretty poor 20th century, and I think we’re looking again at a great 21st century.”

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In a country where politicians rarely looks beyond the next election, taking the long view is remarkable in itself.

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—With assistance from Tom Rees.

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