From Joy Division to the Happy Mondays by way of the Haçienda, Manchester is known for its groundbreaking bands and the hedonistic nightlife they spawned. Now the city is hoping to lift its cultural offer to a higher plane with The Factory, a new arts centre that will host events from traditional theatre to whizz-bang immersive experiences, such as the 3D virtual reality planetarium slated for Manchester’s International Festival in 2017.
The name of the centre is an homage to the record label behind some of the city’s biggest bands, but also denotes a shift in Manchester’s aspirations: from an industrial sprawl, supplying the nation with manufactured goods to a creative hub, spewing out graphic designers.
Unusually, in this age of austerity, it is almost entirely funded out of the government purse. George Osborne pledged £78 million to the construction of The Factory in last year’s autumn statement, which the council said would cover “a large proportion of the anticipated overall project costs”.
This kind of project is crucial to the concept of the Northern Powerhouse, says Sir Richard Leese, leader of Manchester’s city council. “It’s not replicating something, it’s not moving a deckchair from one place to another; it’s creating something new that will be of international significance. We need those sorts of investments in the north.”
He cites another example, the Henry Royce advanced materials institute, a national research organisation with £235 million of government funding, involving universities including Oxbridge and London, and based in Manchester.
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These are just two of the many carrots thrown to Greater Manchester, which has become the de facto centre of the Northern Powerhouse. Last year the city region agreed to a directly elected metro mayor and, as a result, won powers back from Whitehall over transport, housing, policing and a £6 billion health and social care budget. In the summer budget, Mr Osborne extended this further, putting fire services under the control of the new mayor, as well as establishing a land commission in the city.
Ed Cox, director of IPPR North, says Manchester is being held up as an example of how devolution can work. “The chancellor took the opportunity to show how much Whitehall is willing to concede to cities, if they are prepared to abide by the rules he has set for devolution. He is sitting many of the other cities on the naughty step saying, ‘Look what you could have if you had a metro mayor’.”
Mr Osborne has favoured Manchester from the start, choosing its Museum of Science and Industry as the place to deliver the speech first announcing the concept of a Northern Powerhouse in June last year. He was betting on a winning horse: Manchester has been growing faster than the national average, and outstripped the capital, according to the most recent data. In 2012-2013, its economy grew by 5.1 per cent, compared with London’s 3.8 per cent.
Academics suggest there is some logic to focusing a project like the Northern Powerhouse on one key city. Alan Harding, director of the Heseltine Institute for Public Policy and Practice at the University of Liverpool, says: “If you took London as a model — London does well and the benefits seep out over a wide area, within an 80-mile radius. The same principle applies.”
That kind of comment riles other cities in the north, which look on enviously as powers and funds flow into Greater Manchester. Within the city there is an understanding that the benefits need to stretch across the entire region.
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Clive Memmott, chief executive of Manchester’s Chamber of Commerce, says: “The powerhouse is about top-class connectivity [between the cities of the north] and a really ambitious infrastructure programme to create a single labour market.”
Sir Richard says this wider labour pool will drive growth. “For most companies availability of a skilled workforce is probably the biggest single driver. It’s having an economy, a travel-to-work area large enough for people with those sorts of skills — many who could choose to work anywhere — to be able to know that as their career develops they can have new opportunities without having to move.”
Not everyone is convinced that Mr Osborne’s words are being backed up with real action. The government has faced criticism for delaying what was supposed to be one of the early cornerstones of the project. In June, the electrification of the TransPennine route between Leeds and Manchester was put on hold.
With four universities and more than 100,000 students, Manchester has an abundance of highly qualified temporary residents. While the Haçienda may have attracted a certain crowd in the Eighties, the hope is that projects like The Factory will encourage today’s graduates to stay, and tempt others to make their home within the city region’s limits.