Craig: Greater Manchester’s next decade is about delivery

In her first major address to the property industry as Greater Manchester Mayor, Bev Craig said she would “double down” on partnerships with the private sector to deliver economic growth for the city region.

Craig delivered the keynote address at Place North West’s sold-out Greater Manchester Development Update on 3 September – just weeks after the former Manchester City Council Leader was named Mayor.

Throughout her speech, and conversation afterwards with Place North West deputy editor Dan Whelan, Craig painted a picture of a city region filled with ambition that was eager to deliver and ready to collaborate.

“We’ve had a lot of words in the last decade and a half in Greater Manchester,” Craig told the crowd at Bridgewater Hall. “The next decade and a half is about delivery.”

Greater Manchester Mayor Bev Craig delivered the keynote address at the Greater Manchester Development Update. Credit: PNW

Primed for growth

Craig noted that the city region was having a “unique moment”, with former champion Andy Burnham as the Prime Minister.

“Never has it been the case that we’ve had a Prime Minister that knows [the city region] so intimately well – that knows our challenges and also believes in our opportunities,” Craig said.

Among those challenges: narrowing the productivity gap between London and Manchester to mirror that of Paris and Lyons – a move that would add tens of billions of pounds to the country’s economy, she said.

Craig promised to “bang the drum” for infrastructure investment, which will be key to delivering the growth she wants to see in the city region.

“You can’t continue to be one of the fastest-growing city regions in Europe if your growth is reliant on platforms 13, 14,” Craig said, referring to Piccadilly Station.

“It should not be the case that the reliability of the Northern economy is reliant on one side little platform attached to a station that was built over 200 years ago, where you could be sat in a queue of trains just as long as you’re sat in a queue of Ubers trying to get into the rail station,” she said.

To help her cause, she asked of the business community to back her lobbying work to central government.

She also challenged those in the room to join forces with her other initiatives: revamping high streets, rethinking apprenticeships, and building 50,000 council and social homes by 2039 – 10,000 of which will either be built or have planning permission by 2028.

Place North West deputy editor Dan Whelan spoke with Craig about her ambitions for the city region. Credit: PNW

Ready to collaborate

Partnerships, especially those with the private sector, will be vital for the city region going forward.

“Politicians do not create growth,” Craig said. “They can create the conditions for growth. They can set the parameters as to what good growth looks like.

“Greater Manchester’s success so far has been our partnership: the partnership that happens between politicians, public sector institutions, our universities, but crucially our private sector,” she continued.

“If we’re to achieve what we want to achieve in the decade ahead, we need to not just continue that partnership, but we need to double down.”

The £2bn Good Growth Fund puts that partnership promise into action, by helping close the viability gap for development.

The aid does come with strings, though, Craig said.

“The point of the Good Growth Fund is to create a new model, one that is more interventionist, that says that if you’re trying to work with us to achieve our aims in this city region then we will step in and we’ll step up, and we’ll be able to help not just bridge the gap but set a tone of confidence.

“But you will see, over time, see us talk more about what we can get out of that Good Growth Fund.

“If we’re offering you the opportunity for access to cheaper capital, or lower return rates, or more patient capital over the longer term that you wouldn’t ordinarily have got – then we will be asking you questions about what kinds of jobs you’re creating and who you are creating those jobs for and whether you work with us in our values base around trying to lift everyone up in Greater Manchester.”

Going beyond the Good Growth Fund, Craig encouraged the crowd of property professionals to engage with her team about how to improve the city region.

“Politicians don’t have the monopoly on good ideas,” she said.

“If you have a good idea, an idea that benefits the city region or your bit of it, get in touch.”

Craig said she was planning to run for re-election in May 2028. Credit: PNW

Focused on the long-term

While her predecessor may have moved to Whitehall, Craig has no ambitions for Westminster – in the near future at any rate.

She said she would be running for Mayor when the post comes up for election in 2028 and would stay in the job as long as the people of Greater Manchester supported her.

“The reality is that I’ve already turned down Parliament,” Craig said, describing how she twice declined to run for a Westminster seat.

“I wanted this job,” she said, referencing her role as Greater Manchester Mayor. “Now I’ve got this job and I’m incredibly excited about actually delivering for the next decade here in Greater Manchester.”