Manchester seeking devolved inward investment powers

MANCHESTER’S next big goal in terms of wrestling power from Whitehall is for control of inward investment strategy, city council chief executive Sir Howard Bernstein said.

He told members of pro.manchester that UK Trade and Investment – the Government’s export promotion and inward investment body – is not the right model for Greater Manchester, which has its own agency, MIDAS, but which is under-resourced.

“The reality is UKTI is like London Enterprises. We need the authority to do our own thing, to grow, to add value, to drive the economy forward.”

He insisted such a local solution was not “about me jetting around the world”, but was part of the overall strategy of providing a “customised  approach” to economic success in the city region.

He told the event’s 180 attendees that the “defining moment” for him in the last 12 months was the Government’s City Deal – a pioneering initiative announced in April, which allows Greater Manchester to reinvest its own national tax revenues in local schemes.

The arrangement – a first for any UK city, gives Greater Manchester the ability to ‘earn back’ up to £30m a year of tax for growth it creates.

He praised the Government’s approach to empowering cities, adding: “I have been articulating for as long as I can remember that cities are an engine for growth, and there has been a significant shift under this government towards this.”

Having secured such a “one-to-one engagement with the government machine”, he said the challenge for Greater Manchester is now to deliver on its promises, by improving skills, tackling worklessness and generating growth.

He said engaging and trading with China and other fast-growing economies was a key challenge for the next 10 years, along with capitalising on opportunities in the low carbon economy.