‘Good growth’: Manchester summit debates what Andy Burnham’s big vision for the UK might look like

Good Growth Summit debates profit and purpose as likely new PM plans ‘Number 10 in the North’

Andy Burnham wasn’t in the room at the Good Growth Summit in Manchester, but somehow he hovered over every conversation.

On Monday, Britain’s likely next Prime Minister announced his vision for ‘Good growth in every British postcode’. Wednesday’s summit at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester had been planned for months, but its timing was perfect.

Speakers from the North West and beyond came to talk about what good, inclusive growth meant for them – and of course, to talk about what a new Government might mean. In areas from housebuilding to green energy and from diversity to commercial property, we heard how business can and should be about more than just profit.

It all depends on what you think “good growth” actually is. In the video introducing the event, organiser Paul Corcoran said it meant business “doesn’t have to be a trade-off between profit and purpose. We can do both.”

He added: “Let’s prove why good business is actually great business.”

In his in-person intro, the smart casual-dressed Paul joked: “All eyes are on Manchester at the moment. And I even came in my Andy Burnham getup. Though I did leave my Adidas Sambas at home.”

Emma Degg, CEO from the North West Business Leadership Team, said hope was at the heart of “good growth”. Again referencing Andy Burnham’s speech, she said: “Hope in every heart and growth in every postcode really is the essence of good growth.”

And she added: “It’s not for Andy Burnham or the cabinet or the ‘Number 10 of the North’ to make a difference and make sure we properly deliver good growth – it’s for all of us.”

Juergen Maier, chair of Great British Energy, co-founder of social enterprise vocL and former CEO of Siemens UK, also enthusiastically referenced Mr Burnham’s flagship speech this week.

He said: “Genuinely I was celebrating the words ‘good growth in every postcode’ and even more, I was celebrating the word reindustrialisation.”

In his keynote address Chris Woodroffe, managing director at Manchester Airport and chair at the NWBLT, also had to mention both Mr Burnham’s good growth and his fashion sense.

The besuited Chris joked he didn’t get the memo about dressing like Andy Burnham does in Manchester, saying “I’ve turned up looking like Andy Burnham from London with my red tie and matching red socks.”

But he said that the Makerfield MP’s focus on good growth was “really quite important” for the North West and for the wider UK. Chris said he’d been at a dinner the night before the summit and mentioned it – only to be asked “What is good growth?”

He added: “What I said to the person next to me was it’s the sort of growth that, rather than making the rich richer and the poor poorer, is the kind of growth that impacts everyone”

Chris noted that Andy Burnham had been talking about place-based change, and about communities being able to make their own decisions – which he said was “Growth in a place rather than delivered from Whitehall to people to whom it doesn’t quite work.”

He added: “That’s what good growth is to me – place based work delivered by government with people like Tom (Stannard from Manchester City Council)… and all the businesses you run coming together to deliver growth, to deliver good jobs, to deliver investment. That to me is good growth. And it needs a long term perspective.”

Talking of long-term ambitions, Chris hailed Manchester Airport’s £1.5bn investment programme. He said the airport now handles 32 million passengers, serving some 200 destinations – a network that means the airport is “connected to 72% of the world’s GDP”.

Chris said the airport had the potential to grow still further, but that would need more support from Government and for a project with which Andy Burnham is all too familiar.

“There’s actually an opportunity for Manchester to be a 60m (passenger) airport. But to do that someone needs to sort out the transport infrastructure and build the Northern Powerhouse Rail …”

He said Manchester’s transport links to cities such as Liverpool and Leeds paled in comparison to the much faster connections available in the Netherlands to Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport.

If Manchester could get 60m passengers he said, the airport would need a new terminal and other big investments. That could generate another £9bn for the local economy and another 60,000 jobs.

And he added: “It’s jobs that really matter. When we talk about good growth or growth in general what that translates to are jobs for real people who live in real places and would like to have some optimism for the future.”

The day’s first panel discussion debated skills, talent, diversity and opportunity. Lauren Rosegreen, JCI International, talked about young leaders and the pressures they are facing.

She said “we’ve never had a generation of emerging leaders that look like the one we have now” in terms of diversity of race, gender, sexuality and disability representation. But she said that generation was anxious about what the future might hold in a world of increasingly polarised views. She said: “The new generation of leaders are scared. They are nervous.. it is a really scary world we are inheriting.”

Also on the panel was Tom Stannard, chief executive at Manchester City Council, who was asked by host Paul Corcoran about what the city was doing to help those who might feel “left behind” by the city centre’s shiny tower-led regeneration.

Tom said the city had seen great success in recent years, including strong job creation. And again referencing Andy Burnham, added that the city was “soon to be home to a little known department called Number 10.”

But he said no-one should forget that there was still deprivation in the city, and work that needed to be done to make sure people are not left out. He said the high cost of living remaining a problem, and that lifelong learning could benefit people of all ages.

And he added: “It’s not just about what occurs in the city, it’s about what occurs in the towns and communities.”

Ciara Keeling, COO at Bruntwood Sci Tech, later spoke about her career in property, and about Bruntwood’s work “breathing new life into assets that other businesses might think are time-expired” as well as developing new buildings

Paul Corcoran couldn’t resist asking her: “What’s next for you? Do we see Number 10 North with a Bruntwood Sci Tech sign above the doors?”

Who knows – but what seems certain is that “good growth” will be at the heart of the Number 10 operation when it heads north.