BeeHere: An Action Plan for Good Growth in Greater Manchester
Policy article by Nathan Boroda
Foreword
Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester
One of my driving missions throughout my time in public life has been breaking down the link between place and opportunity.
That is why when I first ran to be Mayor of Greater Manchester I said that I would make young people a priority for investment and not a target for cuts. Eight years on, the next generation in Greater Manchester now have a new generation of institutions to support them, from Our Pass to the BeeWell Survey and the MBacc and Housing First.
But we know that life chances in the UK remain too unequal and that this problem is a symptom of the North-South divide. Our people and infrastructure have been under-invested in for decades and, if we want to close this gap, we need a fundamental shift in our political and economic settlement.
We now know that devolution has been proven to offer us the tools to tackle problems that Westminster has found intractable, from profound health inequalities to stagnant economic growth. This report offers some interesting suggestions about how devolving more powers to Greater Manchester can boost opportunity for the next generation.
Introduction
Praful Nargund, Director of the Good Growth Foundation
The story of Britain’s economy over the last few decades is one of profound inequality. While our nation’s capital has flourished into a global financial and cultural behemoth, the economic dynamism that once characterised our great industrial heartlands has been allowed to wither. This concentration of opportunity is not merely an economic inefficiency; it is a moral failure that leaves talent untapped and communities behind. At the Good Growth Foundation, we believe that a truly prosperous Britain must be built on the principle of distributed success, where high-wage, high-skilled jobs are a reality in every region - not just a privilege reserved for some. The path to achieving this requires a fundamental regionalisation of our national growth strategy.
The devolution settlement, which hands genuine power and resources back to regional leaders, is vital for recalibrating our economy. It is a necessary shift from the centralised, top-down approaches of the past, empowering local leaders who possess the necessary local insight and mandate to tackle challenges and seize regional opportunities. Nowhere is this clearer than in Greater Manchester, which is already proving itself to be an engine of local, good growth.
Good growth is tangible to everyday people. In the Bee Network, GM’s radical re-franchising of its public transport system, we can see more than just a new bus service; it is a clear, visible example of how local control can deliver a better quality of life for residents, win back public faith in government, and catalyse local economic activity. This level of visible, responsive public service is how we reconnect politics with people’s everyday lives and, crucially, how we begin to win back the faith and engagement of voters who feel abandoned by Westminster.
By further empowering places like Greater Manchester with investment and autonomy, the Government can achieve its missions of growth and opportunity by making regional success the new national standard.
Introduction
Stories of people moving to London to take up new opportunities are far from a new phenomenon. From Dick Whittington and his Cat in the early 1600s to young people today, having to move to London for work has long been a reality.
This paper makes the case for an opportunity revolution in Greater Manchester, underpinned by investment in our people and infrastructure to create a high-wage economy alongside innovative use of new powers in a relational model designed to close the opportunity gap.
This is not to talk the city down; quite the opposite. Greater Manchester has changed significantly in recent decades - the regeneration of the City Centre has transformed the local economy whilst Media City is one of many examples of the thriving creative sector. Indeed, academic evidence has found that devolution to the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) has reduced local health inequalities and boosted economic growth over the last ten years by 3.1% on average. Under the current Mayoralty, Greater Manchester has pioneered new approaches for delivering better services in the 2020s, from re-franchising our buses under the Bee Network to expanding vocational education with a new Manchester Baccalaureate (MBacc). Moreover, Greater Manchester has been recognised as the UK’s most AI-ready city, prepared to take advantage of the next technological revolution.
Clearly, Greater Manchester is in a far better position than in the 1980s when it comes to life chances. But, in spite of this, systemic issues mean there is far more to do to close regional inequality of opportunity. Devolution to Greater Manchester has been an undeniable success. Its next stage must now tap into the new Government’s Growth and Opportunity Missions to close the opportunity gap between Greater Manchester and London.
The Mancunian paradox is that Manchester still suffers from low wages - with salaries around £3,000 lower than the national average - despite all the recent positive developments.
Worryingly, recent research has found the ‘graduate wage premium’ has fallen in every region outside the capital. Analysis from The Financial Times found that 30 years ago, 50% of the highest paid jobs were in the capital. That figure now sits at 75%. But focusing on graduates misses the point. Lower pay for non-graduate jobs and graduate relocation are two sides of the same coin: underinvestment in our people and infrastructure. Systemic underinvestment has resulted in a productivity gap between Greater Manchester and London of 35% compared to the 20% between Paris and Lyon. At current rates, it would take 90 years for Greater Manchester to simply reach the French average - although this is beginning to narrow.
Britain’s growth requires a strong Greater Manchester. But for too many careers, jobs are only accessible in London. This is also a concern shared by the Prime Minister, who on a visit to nearby Burnley declared it is his mission that “young people would no longer have to leave their Lancastrian town to achieve great things.”
This thinking is borne out in the new Government’s Opportunity Mission, which says “no child should have their future life chances limited or held back by the circumstances into which they were born.” Likewise, Andy Burnham has always made fairer life chances central to his political agenda, saying that for too many people “the postcode of the bed you are born in still determines where you end up.” It is a mistake to see this analysis as suggesting people must stay forever in the place they are born - far from it. The life chances agenda is about giving people more options where they currently have few, a sense of control and agency over their lives and the chance to live in communities where the talent they have can match the opportunities they see.
Supporting a culture of opportunity, collaboration and innovation will in turn deliver higher living standards. Our industrial specialisms are the key ingredients of innovation - creative arts, advanced manufacturing and technology coming together in one place.
The origins of these specialisms are rooted in Greater Manchester’s history and values; what’s missing is the investment and the autonomy. Indeed, with the MBacc making vocational employment equal in status to academic achievement, and AI likely to particularly impact graduate roles, this new dynamic presents Greater Manchester with a chance to lead an opportunity revolution rooted in the high-tech, unionised jobs of the future.
The opportunities for growth are huge. Greater Manchester is on the up. It led the first Industrial Revolution and it can lead the next one too. So how do we secure a positive role for Manchester in the story of British growth?
Mancunian Justice: A framework
When thinking about solutions to this problem, we must look to a framework of Mancunian values, and in particular a local sense of justice. Mancunian Justice, rooted in our city region’s unique history and culture, holds three discernible concepts.
Justice for one another: So much of the city region’s history is rooted in people coming together to support one another in a spirit of fellowship. The foundation of the Trade Union Congress, the Co-operative movement and supporting President Lincoln’s boycott of slave-picked cotton are just a few examples of how Mancunian history is steeped in mutuality. This ought to shape our approach to closing the opportunity gap.
Just Growth: Greater Manchester’s spirit of mutuality was developed in the context of the Industrial Revolution. Throughout our history we have recognised that growth and economic justice are not incompatible, but rather two halves of the same whole, providing a social floor with ladders of opportunity. As we look ahead to the next Industrial Revolution, good growth must be at its heart. That means an economic settlement built on a spirit of Mancunian innovation, delivering both high growth and low inequality.
Justice for the next generation: Our social contract is about passing down opportunities to the next generation. When people marched at Peterloo for votes for working people and Manchester’s Emmeline Pankhurst fought for votes for women, they had fair opportunities for the next future generations in mind. And yet, too many Mancunians grow up in poverty, with the pernicious impact that has on their life chances. Our future growth must be rooted in the principle that life chances should be fair - not based on the postcode you are born in.
Greater Manchester’s values of industry and justice are reflected in the symbol of the worker bee. It is now an integral part of our cultural and political identity, with bright yellow BeeNetwork buses now rolled out across the conurbation and the BeeWell survey, listening to young people about their wellbeing. The next stage should be to roll out a ‘BeeHere’ campaign focused on attracting people to Greater Manchester. If this succeeds, no young person should feel they have to leave Greater Manchester to achieve their career objectives. Some may choose to, for a variety of reasons, but nobody should have to.
To achieve this, Greater Manchester must grapple with two twin challenges: under-investment leading to a lower wage economy as well as inequalities of opportunity for its people. Boosting investment and growth will allow Greater Manchester to become the home of the high-tech, unionised jobs of the future - just as it led the first Industrial Revolution. Moreover, creating more high-tech jobs will boost the number of employers who will become part of the MBacc. Further to this, Greater Manchester should be empowered to use new and existing powers to find innovative ways to break the link between opportunity and place.
As such, the recommendations seek to provide some solutions for bringing more opportunities to Greater Manchester by boosting high-tech growth, devolving new powers and establishing a new relational model to empower young people. In doing so, Greater Manchester should also be a trailblazer for the Government’s Growth and Opportunity missions, showing the synergy between the two.
Recommendations
1. Prioritise Sustained Growth in High-Tech Industries
As has been the case throughout Greater Manchester’s history, economic growth is the key ingredient for driving increases in local wages and living standards. Such growth will require a large-scale programme of public sector investment in the city region, thereby crowding private sector investment into our key industries. The first step must be to ensure that the much-needed rewrite of the Treasury Green Book is a catalyst for a culture shift, pushing long-term investment in the North and Midlands. Rewriting the Green Book must also provide Combined Authorities with both greater stability and flexibility, the combination of which will enable local growth.
This should be supplemented by the ambitious Greater Manchester AI Demonstrator City Region Plan, which should prioritise the delivery of a 10% annual growth in its science and technology sector as part of its AI Sector Development programme. Such growth would see Greater Manchester become a global centre and therefore expand the graduate market in the high-skilled and unionised jobs of the future. Moreover, Greater Manchester is in a unique position to attract investment for its specialities, particularly as Europe’s fastest growing digital and tech hub as well as the interface between tech, creative industries and advanced manufacturing.
2. Deepen the Pool of Investment for Local Growth
One of the key causes of the country’s low growth has been the failure to provide businesses with the resources needed to scale-up. While this is a national problem, devolution offers the opportunity to innovate and the GMCA should ask both the National Wealth Fund and British Business Bank to establish a Greater Manchester Strategic Investment Council with a specific programme for scaling up local businesses as part of the AI Demonstrator City Region Plan.
Building on its Mayoral Development Corporations, the new Investment Council would allow GMCA to become an investor, based on the model pioneered by Northern Gritstone and supported by the Government’s new Proof of Concept Fund.
Likewise, as part of a broader strategy of ensuring more economic institutions relocate to Greater Manchester, a greater number of economic-facing Government Departments and Agencies should operate from the city region to build both local opportunities for high-skilled jobs and greater empathy amongst officials.
3. Pilot Research and Development Devolution in Greater Manchester
Research and Development is key to generating the ideas that will superpower Greater Manchester but creative genius in Greater Manchester is inevitably untapped by underinvestment, as 50% of UKRI funding goes to the ‘Greater South East.’ Alongside its vital Local Innovation Fund, the Government should pilot the devolution of the budget and autonomy for a Mayoral Research and Development Programme in Greater Manchester to help bring the public investment needed to buttress innovation.
4. Make Greater Manchester the International Capital of Young Entrepreneurs
One key way to ensure more young people stay in Greater Manchester is to create more opportunities for them to start their own local businesses, inspired by the six unicorns already in the city region. That’s why as part of Greater Manchester’s Growth Plan, it should seek to be the international Capital of Businesses started by U35s with an aim of achieving ten unicorns by 2030 and 20 by 2035. The GMCA should also look at a specific programme for the development of young entrepreneurs as part of the ‘Financial and Professional’ aspect of the Manchester Baccalaureate (MBacc).
5. Lead An Employment Support Revolution
Employment support programmes are central to supporting the good-quality and well-paid local jobs of the future and GMCA’s LiveWell programme has already been found to deliver better results than at a national level. LiveWell’s key strength is its relational model which provides better upstream support and ‘crowds in’ the voluntary and community sector to support this local mission.
To build on this, further devolution would enable Greater Manchester to redouble its innovation in employment support, utilising the technologies of the future to support people into work. This should involve the creation of a ‘Greater Manchester AI Employment Support Programme,’ based on the successful model used in both Estonia and France. This could be funded by the Government’s new Research and Development Missions Programme and should particularly focus on reducing the number of 18-25 year olds Not in Education Employment or Training.
6. Accelerate the Technical Education Programme by Federalising the Department for Education
By introducing the MBacc, political leaders in Greater Manchester have revolutionised and built much-needed prestige in technical education rooted in the needs of the local economy. They are giving young people a renewed sense of aspiration and equality of status through a genuine alternative path of MBacc-T-Levels-GMACS-apprenticeship. In order to supplement this work and build the pipeline, the Department for Education should operate on a new federal model, providing the funding and powers on curriculum to Metro Mayors. This would include empowering Mayors to develop a curriculum for secondary education to be taught alongside a reduced National Curriculum covering the basics, thereby creating a pipeline from KS3 to the MBacc.
7. Establish a new Youth Covenant
To provide the structure for an opportunity revolution, Greater Manchester’s economy needs to organise itself in a relational way, through a new Youth Covenant between young people, local leaders, public services, trade unions, businesses and the community. It is time for Greater Manchester to replicate the kind of networks that students in historic private schools receive and close this connections gap, described by academic Nancy Di Tomaso as ‘opportunity hoarding.’
That is why the Government should consider including a ‘duty to connect,’ an obligation on organisations to foster greater connections and mentorship opportunities between their staff and young people.
It should also tap into the Greater Manchester diaspora across the country and the world who would be willing to share their time and experience with young people. Fantastic work on this is being pioneered by the ‘One Million Mentors’ initiative. Greater Manchester’s share of a million mentors in the UK would be 42,336 and the GMCA should set a target to be the first locality to achieve its share.
In order to root the Youth Covenant in the Greater Manchester establish framework it should be added as an additional requirement to Greater Manchester’s vital Good Employment Charter’s ‘Engagement and Voice’ programme and to the Curriculum for Life, with a particular emphasis on oracy.
8. Roll out the BeeHere Campaign
GMCA should launch a ‘BeeHere’ advertising campaign which showcases Greater Manchester across the country, including in London Underground stations. It should also redouble its purpose to make Greater Manchester the country’s most connected city region, as part of the Government’s Growth and Opportunity Missions.
Conclusion
In his first mayoral campaign Andy Burnham said that while Westminster had made young people “a target for cuts,” he would ensure that they are a “priority for investment” in Greater Manchester.
A series of interventions have sought, with considerable success, to deliver on this through OurPass, the MBacc and BeeWell, amongst others. The next step must be to make Greater Manchester the capital of opportunity in the UK and finally break the link between opportunity and place. Throughout Greater Manchester’s radical history one theme has been central: hope. A belief that, despite the injustices the city has and will continue to face, better days lie ahead for the future of this place.
The measures in this report can support Greater Manchester’s already thriving progress and give hope to us all.
