Report of the Strategic Director (Growth and Development)

This report provides an update on the development of a new Economic Strategy which sets out how the next phase of Manchester’s growth can ensure that the city’s economy is both high performing and drives a reduction in inequalities.

The Committee received a report and presentation of the Strategic Director (Growth and Development) which provided an update on the development of a new Economic Strategy which set out how the next phase of Manchester’s growth could ensure that the city’s economy was both high performing and drove a reduction in inequalities.

Key points and themes within the report and presentation included:

• Manchester’s economic ambition;
• Manchester’s economy;
• Policy context;
• The strategy development process;
• Early feedback from residents and businesses;
• RSA Urban Future Commission;
• Resolution Foundation Economy 2030 Enquiry;
• Research findings/literature review;
• Summary of main challenges identified from evidence base and research work;
• Vision and purpose;
• Strategy objectives; and
• Measuring progress.

The Leader invited Members’ feedback, which would be taken into account as the document was finalised.  She outlined the national context that the city was operating in and highlighted the challenge of increasing economic productivity while having an inclusive focus, including addressing the gap between those who lived in the city and those who worked in the city.  She highlighted how this Strategy would complement the Our Manchester Strategy and work taking place at a Greater Manchester level.

Key points and queries that arose from the Committee’s discussions included:

• To welcome that the Committee’s feedback from the last time this item had been considered had been incorporated into this work;
• The impact of years of austerity and of the pandemic;
• To ask who had been engaged with in relation to the development of this strategy and were there any differences in the responses from businesses and residents in different parts of the city;
• Concern that Manchester did not have many of the levers to implement change as many powers lay with central Government;
• The importance of the district centre strategy, including district centres as a place where people worked;
• The focus on the private sector, noting that a strong public sector could provide high quality, rewarding jobs;
• The impact of city centre growth on areas that neighboured the city centre and ensuring that local residents benefited from this growth and could access these jobs;
• To welcome the consideration of zero carbon commitments within the report;
• The link with the Our Manchester Strategy;
• Was the Council doing everything it could to increase the number of employers paying the real living wage;
• Retaining graduates in the city;
• The impact of home working, including on data;
• The importance of quality of life, culture and the night-time economy in attracting and retaining people in the city;
• Noting that, while this was a ten-year strategy, the impact of the decisions made about the use of land in the city would impact far beyond this period; and
• That agglomeration was about connectivity not just density, with reference to the way areas outside of the city centre could be viewed if they had the right transport links.

The Leader recognised the Member’s comment about levers for change resting with central Government, while commenting that Greater Manchester had progressed further in obtaining devolved powers than other city regions, and benefited from having mature relationships between places and a coherent centre; however, she commented that the datasets relating to Manchester and Greater Manchester could be complicated, with different data sources including different areas and it was important to be clear on this in order to be able to benchmark with other cities.  She stated that the Council had not received all the devolved powers that it had asked for and that she would continue to lobby the Government for a coherent plan for cities and greater control over levers to implement change, as well as over funding and about business rates, or whatever replaced business rates in future.  In response to a Member’s comments, she stated that it was important not only to focus on jobs but on creating good, thriving, sustainable neighbourhoods that people wanted to live in and which would attract and retain people.  She advised that, while creating jobs in high value private sector areas had a greater impact on productivity, the public sector could provide good quality jobs; however, she noted that some areas of the country had suffered due to an over-reliance on public sector jobs which had been cut. In response to a Member’s question, she stated that, while other areas had focused on one sector, Manchester had intentionally focused on four key sectors and this eco-system had enabled new and emerging sectors to set up and grow their businesses in Manchester.

In response to Members’ comments, the Director of Inclusive Economy reported that this strategy was replacing two previous strategies and that there had been a focus on embedding resilience into the strategy.  She advised that the land available in the city centre was constrained and that the Council had to choose how to use it in the best way, highlighting work to extend the city centre at Victoria North, including a social value framework across all partners.  She reported that Manchester had been accredited as a Living Wage City and had met the targets that it had set in relation to this and that this work would continue.  She informed the Committee that Manchester had good quality graduates, including those in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects, and that the challenge was in retaining them in graduate jobs, advising that creating more of these jobs would require making the city centre more dense.  She acknowledged a Member’s comments about needing to consider how growing the city centre impacted on adjacent areas.  In response to a Member’s question, she outlined how the Council worked with the universities, utilising their expertise.

The Leader stated that Manchester was performing better than most cities in retaining its graduates but that too many were working in non-graduate jobs and that continued work was needed to create more graduate jobs, as well as continuing to improve the education and skills of Manchester residents.  She highlighted that increasing numbers of Manchester residents were now going to university.  She advised that growing the city centre, and the city’s reputation internationally, was enabling Manchester to attract businesses to invest in other parts of the city.

In response to the questions about engagement, the Strategy and Economic Policy Manager reported that the online survey had closed two days previously and that more information would be included in a future report.  He informed Members that other methods had also been used, such as having officers attend events across the city to engage with people, in order to obtain responses from a wider range of people.  In response to a question about home working affecting data quality, he reported that data indicated that a lot of people were back working in the office, at least for part of the week, but that there was an issue with data quality during the pandemic when working practices had changed dramatically.

The Head of City Policy acknowledged the challenges and opportunities relating to zero carbon including transport connectivity, green jobs, building standards and the need to adapt to a changing environment.  In response to a further question on home working, he acknowledged that someone employed by a company in London but working from home in Manchester might not be included in Manchester’s data, and that the impact of home working on data could require further consideration.  The Chair highlighted that home working could impact positively on decarbonisation.

In relation to the vision and purpose of the strategy, a Member commented on residents only being referred to in the second part of the statement, while acknowledging that this might be appropriate, if the document was not primarily aimed at them.  A Member commented on the importance of visible quality of life, including air quality and congestion.  She also requested more clarity on the next steps.  A Member commented on how broad the strategy was and the importance of ensuring that the level was right to make it a useful guiding framework.

The Director of Inclusive Economy advised that the strategy needed to give confidence to investors but also speak to residents.  She stated that this strategy was focused on Manchester’s economy and that the refreshed Our Manchester Strategy would be a broader strategy.  In response to a Member’s question, she confirmed that a literature review had been carried out, including looking at previous strategies and what had and had not worked previously.  A Member commented that communication with residents should primarily be around the Our Manchester Strategy and that communication around this strategy should have an external focus.

The Leader reported that a key message to residents was that the city was not pursuing growth at all costs and that the Council wanted to carefully consider and choose how the city would continue to grow.  She acknowledged a Member’s point about the importance of quality of life in attracting and retaining people, including graduates, in the city and reflecting this in the strategy, highlighting that improvements in Manchester schools encouraged people to remain in the city when they started a family.  She advised that the strategy was due to be considered by the Executive in November and would come back to the Scrutiny Committee prior to that and that there would also be engagement sessions taking place with Councillors as well as further input from members of the Senior Management Team.

In relation to the objectives, a Member asked whether new hubs were being considered, including in north Manchester, and advised that the second objective should include a reference to ensuring that growth was equitable.  She advised that progress measures should incorporate climate change and asked that measures be connected to specific objectives in the final report and include benchmarking or RAG ratings to make the information more meaningful.  She suggested that more consideration of encouraging start-up businesses could be included.  She also highlighted a shortage of entry level roles in technology companies. 

The Chair suggested a measure relating to spatial inequality.  A Member suggested that the proposed measure relating to the gap between Manchester resident and Manchester worker wages include how this looked geographically across the city.  She suggested that the ratio of housing expenditure to income be measured rather than the ratio of house prices to earnings.

A Member asked that, when this item was next considered, more critical voices be included in the discussion, as well as hearing residents’ voices.  She also asked that more information on the risk factors explored in relation to embedding resilience in the strategy to be included in the next report.  She advised that the Council should get buy-in from business in relation to lobbying the national Government. 

In response to the Member’s comments, the Leader invited all Members of the Committee to the Resolution Foundation’s Economy 2030 Enquiry launch event in Manchester.  She also offered to circulate the associated report, when it was made public.  She reported that businesses were supporting the lobbying of the national Government to give the city increased control of the levers to bring about change.

Decision:

That consideration will be given to when and how the Strategy is further scrutinised by the Committee, taking into account Members’ comments.