Downtown, dubbed among the best by the Business Select Committee Chair Liam Byrne, brought together top business leaders and politicians from Greater Manchester at Westminster last week.
The city region has undergone significant leadership change in recent years. The great partnership of Council leader Sir Richard Leese and the late Chief Executive Sir Howard Bernstein is over. Organisations sometimes find the transition to new leadership tricky. But from the presentations at the reception, it looks as if the change has been more Arne Slot than Ruben Amorim et al.
Guests were lured from the sun kissed Commons terrace to first hear from Lucy Powell. The Manchester Central MP had come from fielding an hour of business questions in her role as Leader of the House. I’d earlier watched from the Press Gallery as she fielded demands for debates on a whole range of constituency issues. They weren’t agreed to but will be reported locally which is what the MPs want.
Anyway, Ms Powell urged business to buy into the success story of the city region which had pioneered the devolution model now being rolled out in the rest of the country.
She was followed by Bev Craig, no longer the new leader of Manchester Council. She has been in post four years! She reported that Barcelona, Milan, and New York were beating paths to Greater Manchester’s door. Life sciences, cyber, AI, advanced tech and professional services would provide the jobs of the future. However, and this became a theme of most speakers, growth was being held up because of a lack of ambition over rail investment.
Naomi Smith, who leads the pro Europe Best for Britain organisation, claimed business wanted the Single Market and Customs Union back, but we had to operate within the government’s red lines, until Ministers could not ignore the clamour for bolder EU policies anymore.
After praising Downtown saying “very few business networking organisations are as good as you” the Business Select Committee Chair Liam Byrne said Donald Trump ‘s America was moving out of the multilateral way of doing things. We must take advantage of the reset to become the hub of global trade. Radical devolution within the UK was essential to growth.
Tom Stannard echoed this saying Manchester provided the nation’s growth opportunity. Interestingly he said that now the area had got a single pot of government funds to spend as it will, business rate reform could be considered.
He looked at upcoming challenges to build 36,000 houses, more Grade A offices and the likely move of Strangeways Prison so that its central location could be developed. Whilst the Manchester business scene was prospering, 48% of children were in poverty and 51% of Mancunians were from a non-British background.
Stannard echoed the cry for the government to raise its game on rail investment and this week at the presentation of the new Northern Arc project, the mayors of Greater Manchester and Liverpool City Region have called for a new rail line linking Liverpool through Warrington and Manchester Airport to Piccadilly.
The Downtown Westminster reception for Manchester will be followed by one for Liverpool in June.
