Manchester should put people before buildings, says Nesta

Rss |

Homepage |

E-mail this article |

3:04 pm, September 17, 2009
Manchester should put people before buildings, says Nesta

By Simon Binns

A new report claiming Manchester needs to concentrate on its people and cultural output rather than physical regeneration met with a mixed response from the city council's chief executive, Sir Howard Bernstein.

Original Modern; Manchester's journey to innovation and growth, a new publication from innovation agency NESTA, said that although Manchester had made “impressive” changes over the last twenty years, that period was just the beginning if it wanted to become a world-class city.

At an event at The Lowry Hotel to launch the report, author Charles Leadbeater said there was “probably several more decades of heavy lifting” to see that ambition through and the focus of Manchester would have to shift “from buildings and infrastructure to people and culture”.

“Manchester still does not have enough of the high quality ingredients it needs to be a world-class city and those ingredients need to be mixed and combined more intensively and productively.”

Leadbeater said Manchester could become the home of a newly-reformed “21st century education system,” closing the gap between education and jobs. It could also lead the way in transforming the welfare state and “develop new operating systems” relating to worklessness.

Sir Howard said he was under no illusions that it was not “job done” in Manchester, but said the growth of skills and culture needed to happen alongside physical expansion, not instead of it.

“We know there is more to do and we have no shortage of ambition,” he said. “The growth of the knowledge and creative sectors is crucial to the future strength of the city region.

“We know levels of worklessness need to be tackled and improved; we know we need to engage with national and regional government and find out how they can progress their plans through Manchester. The city-region is not about taking more power from RDAs - it is about driving a public sector reform agenda.”

comments?sbinns@crain.com