MIPIM | Manchester doubles down on £1bn Good Growth promise
“We’re confident that the next decade in Greater Manchester will be the best in our city region since the Victorian period,” said GM Mayor Andy Burnham to a packed room at the global property convention in Cannes.
“That’s not an idle boast.”
Burnham was speaking on MIPIM’s UK Stage on Tuesday at a session dedicated to the £1bn GM Good Growth Fund, a decade-long initiative set to support a £10bn pipeline of projects throughout the city region via a mix of grants, equity investments, and loans.
Its focus is on unviable projects, with offices earning a particular shout out from Manchester City Council chief executive Tom Stannard.
“The purpose of the Good Growth Fund is to help job-producing investments – in other words, in non-viable office interventions,” he told the audience, referring the work going on at Mayfield, Kendals, and MIX Manchester.
It had made a difference to Mark Allan, chief executive of Landsec, the developer behind Mayfield and MediaCity. Landsec is delivering a 243,000 sq ft office at Mayfield, which is currently under construction.
Allan told the room how he is making multi-decade decisions at Landsec, with the projects he is working on looking to come fruition in the 2030s and 2040s. GM, he said, provides the confidence needed to move those projects forward – and the Good Growth Fund is part of that, with its promise of a consistent vision for the future and funding for offices.
GMCA chief executive Caroline Simpson said this was part of the Greater Manchester spirit.
“We don’t wait around hoping for things to improve,” she said. “We make it happen ourselves. We back our places and we take initiative.”
Burnham described this year’s investment prospectus from GM as “the most ambitious” one yet presented at MIPIM.
“The city region is in a position where we’re going at the next decade in a very intentional way,” he said.
So we have been out of the EU for a little while now and someone’s finally noticed projects are stalling because they just don’t fully stack up, where was that “just not viable gap funding coming from”? Oh, I remember the EU GAP fund, so roll forward a few years; how are we to sort this current challenge out? I know, we can create a construction growth fund, and call it the “GM Good Growth Fund”, its only been 6 years since Brexit and 11 since the referendum – sharpe guys these, but we got there.
By Steve5839
Hopefully the GM City Region ARE funding inherently viable commercial led schemes but they are stalled as a result of a lack of access to and / or the cost of debt and mezzanine finance.
If the Combined Authority are throwing grant at unviable schemes then, history tells us, such schemes do not usually prosper well in the medium to longer term (and those making such decisions have moved on!)
By Anonymous
The Growth Fund is good news however a further focus should be on improving the public transport to and from East Manchester which is currently inadequate, particularly on even days/nights.
The Mayor oversees TfGM. There is a current demand and proven priority for East Manchester now which is where action is essential.
By Harry M