City vision underpins map of delivery

We’ve taken advantage of the opportunities afforded us, such as the Commonwealth Games, and have also ensured that we turn setbacks, such as the awful 1997 IRA bomb that devastated so much of our city centre, to our advantage.

But our city’s transformation has not come about through chance – underpinning it all has been a clear strategy, a vision of where wanted to take Manchester, supporting a roadmap of delivery.

We have recently published our planning vision for the city until 2017. And the next 15 years are set to be as radical as the preceding ones. Manchester is a city that never sits still. Which is just as well, because we need to ensure that we stay on top of our game to succeed in an ever-competitive global marketplace. There is no room for complacency.

So our core strategy sets out the vision – to be a successful, sustainable and accessible city in the top rank of European and, indeed, world cities. But it also sets out a series of specific objectives to ensure we realise that vision.

Those objectives range from having an expanded and improved city centre, to nurturing the very best local neighbourhoods where people want to live and raise their families.

It sets out how we will be a city that is locally, nationally and internationally connected. That means great public transport, superb rail and road connections and an airport that will, with the advent of Airport City, be a major world business hub.

The city’s two fantastic universities - Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of Manchester - ensure we are at the forefront of research and learning, and over the coming years we want to enhance that reputation. The discovery of graphene at Manchester University is a totem that sets us apart as a city of true innovation. The International Centre for Graphene will have a global significance that will resonate for generations to come.

As the only effective counterbalance to the strength of the capital, Manchester’s success is vital for the nation as a whole. These plans are ambitious, but they can – and must – be realised.

Sir Howard Bernstein, chief executive, Manchester City Council

*For more information on Manchester’s core strategy, visit www.manchester.gov.uk/corestrategy.

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