Manchester needs bigger city centre, think tank says

Manchester City Council leader Bev Craig said the authority had "a plan" and "a mission"

Manchester needs a bigger city centre, more office space, more homes and better transport links if it is to grow like London, a think tank has said.

A report from The Resolution Foundation has said Greater Manchester is "still at the foothills" of its economic revival.

It said the city region outperformed every other major urban area bar Glasgow on productivity since 2002.

Despite this it is still far below the UK average, the report added.

The recommendations were made in the report entitled The Tale of Two Cities, which looked at the productivity of workers - the measure of how much money each worker generates in the economy.

The report also warned of "complacency" as the sight of cranes in central Manchester seemed to signify success to some.

'Knowledge-intensive'

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the report said that on current trends it would take almost a century to close the productivity gap with London to a "reasonable point".

The report looks at what needs to be done to reduce the gap.

Launching the report at an event on Tuesday, Henry Overman, one of the authors of the report said that "major change is needed".

Manchester council leader Bev Craig said: "We have a plan. We have a mission. We have a track record to deliver it.

"But ultimately, we still need more levers, more resource and more political will from national government to get us to where we want to be."

The report called for a bigger city centre, which would attract more "knowledge-intensive "businesses in sectors like IT and insurance and more highly-skilled workers.

It also recommended 126,000 more homes are built in "well-connected" areas.

It said more office space should be created in the city centre with new housing to be built around it - a different approach to the current long-held plans for the city-region - with more housebuilding in places like Tameside, Rochdale, Stockport and Bury.

Manchester council will be publishing a new economic strategy later this year.