More than 10,000 people have had their say
Manchester has seen massive changes over the last 10 years.
The city’s population is bigger, more diverse and better educated with more jobs available and wages rising faster than the national average. Perhaps the most striking change though is the city centre’s skyline with huge skyscrapers now dominating the landscape.
But at the same time, living in the city has become less affordable for many people, with housing costs rising sharply in recent years.
And while efforts have been made to tackle homelessness, rough sleeping remains an issue, with many camped outside the town hall.
Manchester council is now looking ahead to the next 10 years, reflecting on the city’s progress so far and the challenges that remain.
Chief among those challenges is how to preserve the character of the city amid all this change, keeping it ‘authentically Mancunian’.
The local authority has ‘meaningfully’ spoken to more than 10,000 people across the city to inform the latest Our Manchester Strategy.
The document, which sets out the council’s ambitions for the city in the decade ahead, covers all aspects of life in Manchester – from the health and happiness of its residents, to the nature of its neighbourhoods, its climate credentials and its ever-growing economy.
Speaking ahead of the launch of the new strategy, council leader Bev Craig says Manchester is a better place to live than 10 years ago.
But she admits, the city hasn’t achieved everything it set out to do a decade ago, citing housing as a top issue residents often raise.
Life in the UK has got harder over the last decade, she argues, referring to Covid, the cost of living and underfunded public services.
Manchester is not immune to this, she says, meaning that some of the challenges it faces have ‘grown significantly’ in the last 10 years.
“If you think about what we’re trying to do in Manchester,” she says, “we’re trying to reverse what was essentially 50 years of decline.
“We’re trying to take ourselves in a new trajectory that sees ourselves as a city in a very different, new confident place.
“What we have to deal with in the next decade is how do you protect what’s good about the city, how do you become a successful world-class city that also offers something different in terms of way of life, in terms of the affordability of life, all of those things.
“Manchester has never just wanted to copy bits of inner London with loads of fancy housing that nobody can afford and high value jobs that nobody actually lives locally and works in and everyone commutes in and out to. That’s not the vision of Manchester.
“I don’t mind a Starbucks on many a street corner, but nobody wants a Starbucks in every development, in every street corner.
“You have to have something authentically Mancunian.”
So what does it mean to be authentically Mancunian?
“It’s an ambitious city that has long punched above its weight, wants to have its rightful place on the global stage, but a place that leans on values of fairness and justice and equality that means that inasmuch as we are desperate to attract global talent, we recognise that kids growing up in Moston and Moss Side are just as likely to have the ability to be the next CEO or the next inventor of the next great game.
“We see with some of the big global firms that have chosen to base themselves here, they get that there’s something different.
“There’s a reason we’re growing in the cyber, and the AI and the gaming sectors and that isn’t just because of our graduates.
“It’s because the quality of our growing our own young people, a bit of diversity of thought in terms of what happens when you’ve got such a diverse population, like those things strengthen your economic angle, just as much as they make it a great place to live.”
“I think the key thing is that Manchester is ambitious to be bigger,” she adds, “but small enough to still have the ability to move around, to live close to where you work and to enjoy life close to where you work.
“I don’t think Manchester will ever be a place that people just commute into and commute out of without real people living and populating all of those areas.
“What I mean by that is how our economy is structured will naturally be different and I think there is evidence across the globe to show that you can have more than one successful city in a country, but they can have their own vibe, their own ethos and their own way of getting stuff done.”
According to Coun Craig, the new Our Manchester Strategy published this week reflects the optimism of people across the city.
While she acknowledges that some of the ambitions set out in the 2015 strategy remain unfulfilled, she deploys a ‘Mancunian’s glass-half-full version of the world’ and says these outstanding aims are in the ‘not yet achieved camp’, rather than admitting to failure.
For example, she agrees that living in Manchester has become less affordable for many, but proudly talks up plans to address this.
She cites ‘affordable’ housing schemes planned across the city, including those built by the council’s own development arm This City.
And she points to a new tower planned in the heart of the city centre that’s entirely ‘affordable’ – something she wants to see more of.
But while recognising its importance to the economy as a hub for jobs, the council leader wants to look beyond the city centre too.
In fact, the words ‘city centre’ and ‘town’ do not feature once in the new strategy, signalling a shift in focus from the local authority.
Coun Craig insists the omission is not intentional, saying that the city centre will continue to be a ‘densely populated’ economic hub.
So what will people say about Manchester in 10 years’ time?
“I think 2035 for me will bring a time where people will talk much more around the neighbourhoods that exist within our city and having lots of places that are desirable but affordable places to live,” Coun Craig says.
“I think people will be talking about a quality of life that blends culture, music, sport and things to do with having a good job.
“Because that’s what I think life’s about and we don’t want to just focus on the quality of jobs that we’ve got if we don’t focus on the quality of life that comes with it.
“But I also hope that in 2035, we’re talking about a more equitable and fairer city that we’ve been able to do one of the things that is the hardest tricks when it comes to city growth. And that’s about lifting everybody up.
“I can talk about growth and productivity in the economy that would see the rich get richer and everyone else stay the same.
“There’s something for me with the interventions that we’re planning along the way that lifts everybody up to that level so that when people talk about ambition, they talk about aspiration and they talk about social mobility, those are things that are going hand-in-hand.”
“And also, a bit greener,” she adds, because just to be mildly controversial, Manchester is known for being a wee touch grey.
“So hopefully in 2035, the plans around public realm, investing in parks and green spaces, and planting trees, people will hopefully not just see Manchester as a grey place, but a green place.”
