Manchester needs a bigger city centre with more offices to grow like London, report says

Manchester needs a bigger city centre with more office space, 126,000 more homes around it and better transport links if it is to grow like London, a new report has recommended. The Resolution Foundation has said that, despite perceptions, Greater Manchester is ‘still at the foothills’ of its economic revival.

The think tank says that Greater Manchester has outperformed every other major city-region bar Glasgow on productivity – a measure of how much money each worker generates in the economy – since 2002, but it is still far below the UK average. The Tale of Two Cities report warns of ‘complacency’ as the sight of cranes in central Manchester seems to signify success to some.

However, on current trends, the think tank says, it would take almost a century to close the productivity gap with London to a ‘reasonable point’. The report looks at what needs to be done to get that gap down from 35 pc to 20 pc.

It argues that a bigger city centre would attract more ‘knowledge-intensive’ businesses in sectors like IT and insurance and more highly-skilled workers. It also recommends 126,000 more homes are built in ‘well-connected’ areas.

Controversially, it calls for more office space to be created in the city centre with new housing to be built around it. The report suggests a ‘new approach’ – contrary to the current long-held plans for the city-region – with more housebuilding in places like Tameside, Rochdale, Stockport and Bury.

It comes as Greater Manchester’s plan to build 165,000 homes by 2037 approaches its final stages before it is signed off after years of delays. Places for Everyone – known as the spatial framework before Stockport pulled out – proposes that Manchester meets housing targets set for other boroughs.

Although the plan still involves building on green belt sites across Greater Manchester, the joint plan allows some boroughs to build fewer homes than housing targets would require. However, the Resolution Foundation that some land in the city centre is ‘protected’ for commercial developments like offices.

The report also recommends boosting connectivity across the city-region so that more people to the city centre – where higher-paid jobs are based – within 45 minutes. The think tank says another £2bn of funding is needed for this.

But the report argues that its recommendations would raise living standards for millions of residents, lift 24,000 children out of poverty and boost the UK economy. Launching the report at an event on Tuesday (September 19), Henry Overman, one of the authors of the report said that ‘major change is needed’.

Responding to the report at the launch event, Manchester council leader Bev Craig said: “We have a plan. We have a mission. We have a track record to deliver it. But ultimately, we still need more levers, more resource and more political will from national government to get us to where we want to be.”

Manchester council will be publishing a new economic strategy later this year.