‘Manchester… we do things differently here.’ No doubt it’s a phrase you’ve heard increasingly over the last 10 years. Greater Manchester Combined Authority has even adopted it as their official tagline. And I’m here to say (as a Lancastrian) it’s the truth.
Now we can debate who said it and when… but the mythology around the phrase is more interesting than the truth. It speaks to the fact that we can take our past and use it to create whatever future we’d like.
Which is exactly what the city region has done. It was never about ‘the good old days’, instead the rich history of industry, culture and innovation has become a solid foundation for MORE exciting things.
The growth here is outpacing anywhere else in the country for a reason: Greater Manchester has shown just how well devolution can work. It’s leading the way for the rest of the country – showing that bold, locally driven decisions are making the difference.
Although Greater Manchester is growing at an incredible rate, we’re punching below our weight for international trade.
But think of it as a massive opportunity; the only way is up!
Service sectors like financial, professional and business services are starting to make up record numbers of UK exports. Greater Manchester is the country’s second largest exporter of services but only grew 11% between 2016 and 2021.
There’s no reason that over the next five years we can’t triple or quadruple that growth – we have the talent and the resource to do it.
Greater Manchester is a city region of huge cultural importance and influence. Don’t listen to the sceptics: our name carries weight across the world.
A huge part of growth is that businesses here need to think further than just London. In fact, skip London and head straight to Europe, Africa or the Middle East. No more navel-gazing – it’s a big world out there.
Central and local government agree too: the new enhanced partnership between the Growth Company, Greater Manchester Combined Authority, Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce and the Department for Business and Trade is all about joining up the support available – making it easier than ever for businesses to export their goods and services.
We’re talking to businesses hungry to sell more overseas and all they need is pointing in the right direction and off they go. I’m interested in challenging businesses who’ve never even considered it to look at themselves and ask: ‘why not?’
If we’re a place that does things differently… maybe you should start now.