Targets set for Manchester "family"

A NEW set of performance targets is to be set for Greater Manchester’s “family” of organisations to achieve over the next three years as its budgets for 2012/13 are agreed.

Marketing Manchester, New Economy Manchester and inward investment agency MIDAS will operate on a combined budget of £9.7m for 2012/13 – £4.8m of which will be spent on salaries.

The organisations are expected to generate £2.5m of their income from commercial activities – over £2.4m of which is expected to be provided by Marketing Manchester’s commercial partners to help facilitate city marketing campaigns. The remainder will be provided either by contributions from the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities (£3.6m) or as payment for the the delivery of largely public sector-funded programmes (£3.2m).

Skills agency Manchester Solutions, meanwhile, will have a budget of £30.9m – £26.3m of this will be provided for the delivery of public sector programmes such as the Future Jobs Fund in the city-region, with the remaining £4.6m expected to be delivered through its own commercial activities by selling services both to Greater Manchester Chamber and non-chamber clients.

The figures are provided in a business plan for the Greater Manchester family for the next three years which is set to be approved by the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) tomorrow.

By the end of the 2014/15 financial year, the “family” will be expected to have created or safeguarded 6,495 jobs in the region – 2,000 of which should come from attracting foreign firms into the region. They are also expected to have won 40 foreign direct investment projects and to have got at least 280 Greater Manchester firms exporting fir the first time.

The ratio of people claiming jobless benefits is also expected to have been reduced to the regional average (currently 15.8% in GM, 14.9% NW) and the annual number of apprenticeships is expected to have increased by 2,000 to 30,000.

The “family” is also expected to develop and maintain a pipeline of at least 10 new science projects, and to have worked with the Homes & Communities Agency to build 2,500 new homes and bring at least 461 empty homes back into use.

“Greater Manchester has a sophisticated and robust understanding of what drives the economy, its potential and the actions we need to take to achieve sustainable private sector-led growth,” it said.