The annual State of the City report has been launched, providing in-depth analysis of the successes and further challenges for Manchester.
The Our Manchester Strategy – Forward to 2025, was created working closely with businesses partners, community groups and local Mancunians, and presents a detailed blueprint on how Manchester can
The strategy is summarised into five key objectives including sustainability, skills, equity, liveable and low carbon, and staying connected as a city.
Seven-years into the analysis, Manchester has experienced key successes and continues to face many significant challenges.
The analysis is far-reaching across these five objectives, although the core of ambition remains equality and inclusion for all communities, recognising that some need extra support.
Councillor Bev Craig, Leader of Manchester City Council, said: “The State of the City report gives us important insights about Manchester – our progress, the innovations that stand us apart, and the challenges that we know require further work to tackle.
“Our economy is going from strength to strength, with significant investment across the city, high numbers of jobs created, and advancements in key sectors such as digital, tech and research.
“But our residents are facing many challenges. The cost-of-living crisis has impacted our communities, already some of the most deprived in the UK, and although we work closely with our partners to improve the lives of Manchester people, the gap is too large and there are still too many people in this city that struggle from day to day.
Top Headlines:
A Thriving and Sustainable City
Manchester recorded an estimated population of 618,800 in 2023.The population of the city centre alone is approaching 100,000 people. Manchester is seen as a thriving and inclusive place to live, study and work for people across age, ethnicity, gender, disability, sexuality, faith, or socioeconomic background.
Manchester continued to experience strong economic growth in key sectors such as professional, legal, and financial industries, digital and tech. There is a strong pipeline of office floor space with up to 2.2million sq. ft of floor space under construction, supporting more businesses to operate in the city - the highest on record. Manchester’s economy is continually innovating and has diversified in recent years across a range of business sectors, supporting the city’s ongoing growth.
In October 2022, Manchester received formal recognition from the Real Living Wage Foundation for the city’s plan to become an accredited Living Wage Place. The number of people now receiving this has exceeded the original target.
While thousands of people are choosing to begin new lives in the city, the city also boasts an internationally renowned tourism offer. With a rich history vibrant cultural and music scene, and a recognised sport and leisure offer, the city is now attracting tourists in similar numbers as before the pandemic.
There is also renewed energy to invest in the city’s district centres outside the city centre. Areas such as Wythenshawe, Withington, Gorton, Moston Lane and Chorlton all have accelerated a programme of investment to support economic growth in Manchester’s communities.
A Highly Skilled City
There has been a significant improvement in education outcomes in the city with high quality teaching in schools as Manchester strives to offer quality education and ensure young people entering the workforce are well prepared.
According to Ofsted ratings, 93% of early years, 92% of primary schools and 81% of secondary schools have been rated “Outstanding” or “Good” following inspection. Overall, 90% of Manchester schools have achieved this status.
Economic development is a core aim for Manchester and the Council advocates for opportunities to support residents to progress, upskill and retrain to make sure all residents can share in the success of the city.
In November 2023, Manchester residents earned a median monthly wage of £2,114. On average, this is below Greater Manchester, Northwest, and England averages. Although there are signs of improvement in this area, linked to city’s economic growth, there are still high levels of people on Universal Credit – and the claimant count has risen 6.7% year on year.
A Progressive and Equitable City
Equality and inclusivity are central to Manchester’s progress as a city. Part of this plan is to ensure everyone, despite their ethnic background or age, receives the same treatment across physical and mental health care to live a happy and fulfilled life.
The pandemic exacerbated many existing inequalities in the city for already deprived and marginalised communities such as ethnic minority groups, women, and older people.
Making Manchester Fairer (MMF) is Manchester’s five-year action plan to address health inequalities in the city, as part of an integrated health care system to enable service-users to get back on track.
In another far-reaching plan for the city, the Anti-Poverty Strategy 2023–2027 aims to help deprived groups who are experiencing poverty to access better standards of living, particularly amid the cost-of-living crisis. The strategy was developed with the help of stakeholders, partners, and Manchester residents.
The new strategy responds to increasing number of people presenting as homeless. Between the years 2018-19 and up until 2023, there have been 1, 500 presentations a quarter of homelessness and to over 4,000. This figure jumped to 2,680 in quarter 1 to 4,620 in quarter 4 in 2022-23.
However, despite this, the city has seen some success reducing rough sleeping by 17% between 2022 and 2023.
In March 2022, Manchester City Council underwent a full Ofsted inspection around the services it provides for children and young people. The rating given was ‘good’ and referrals to Children’s Services reduced significantly from 1,092 per 10,000 in 2017-18 to 575 per 10,000 in 2022/23.
The council has since embarked on an ambitious three to five-year partnership with children’s charity UNICEF to become an accredited Child Friendly City.
A Liveable and Zero-Carbon City
Manchester Council has made a commitment to improving communities and to increase the number of affordable, low carbon homes available to our residents – creating diverse, attractive, and sustainable neighbourhoods.
Since the pandemic, Manchester has seen significant in building new homes. An estimated 3, 792 new homes were built in 2023-24, including 700 which are new and genuinely affordable houses.
However, the cost-of-living crisis continues to be challenging for residents. Rental costs in Manchester city centre have risen by 13% and 15% across the rest of the city in 2023. To meet demand, the Council’s housing strategy aims to build 36,000 new homes up to 2032 – of which 10,000 will be genuinely affordable to Manchester people.
The city’s goal is to be a safe and accessible place for all residents, that allows everyone to experience the city’s renewed offerings across culture and sport to leisure and flourishing green spaces.
Manchester is striving to be an even more sustainable city and is aiming to achieve its ambition to be net zero-carbon by 2038. Council emissions are 8.9% lower in 2022-23 than the previous year. However, there is more work to be done to lower the city’s carbon footprints. The Climate Change framework has undergone new iterations and will be in place by 2025 which will underpin ongoing efforts to become a greener city.
In 2023, there has been a continued uplift in the use of parks with an estimated 7.2 million visits and over 1,900 events taking place in our parks.he city’s green spaces are thriving, and we are also investing in city wide green infrastructure, sustainable energy and retrofitting buildings as part of Manchester’s ongoing journey to become a zero-carbon city.
Manchester is renowned for culture and a new cultural strategy will be launched in 2024 to further strengthen this city’s offer – alongside the city’s work to be recognised as a global city of sport, this year alone delivering over 25 major sporting events, including the Davis Cup. Record numbers of people visited leisure centres with visits increasing by 1.5% to nearly 2.8 million from 2022.
The year 2023 was already a huge cultural talking pint for the city with major milestones being marked such as the opening of Aviva Studios and Co-op Live, and the reopening of Manchester Musuem, while Chanel’s prestigious Metiers d’Art drew in huge crowds, receiving worldwide attention and putting Manchester on the map.
A Connected City
The launch of The Manchester Digital Strategy: Doing Digital Together, sets the vision for Manchester to be a world class digital city. This means closing the digital gap and becoming more inclusive, building bigger and better digital infrastructure and skills to support the mission. Manchester and the wider region have cemented itself as a booming tech hub and developed a global reputation for digital through a £5bn ecosystem that supports thousands of businesses in the digital and tech sectors.
A successful city runs on reliable transport. Working closely with Transport for Greater Manchester, the March 2021 City Centre Transport Strategy made active travel – walking and cycling the preferred mode of moving around the city. The aim is to encourage residents to re-mode and reach 90% of morning commuter journeys in peak hours to be via sustainable modes of transport by 2040.
In 2023, during the weekday morning peak, 63% of trips into the city centre were made by public transport, 22% by private car and 15% by active travel modes. These overall mode splits are broadly like those seen prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Bee Network Cycle Hire scheme, comprising public hire bikes and e-bikes, is now fully operational as of January 2024. People using the bikes has exceeded expectations with over 75,000 active users and 1.6m kilometres ridden as of March 2024.
The quality of roads is also a part of making connections in the city better with substantial investment having been made. The council has prevented a decline in road and footway conditions, improved drainage, and other highway infrastructure.