Chamber responds to Greater Manchester stategy

Manchester

The Chamber has delivered its response to the Greater Manchester Strategy, published at the end of March by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and AGMA.

The Chamber’s response was that the strategy contained the right priorities and areas for focus - growth, business, worklessness and skills and reducing dependency and demand.

Where it was felt to be lacking though was around detail as to how the proposals were to be implemented, timescales for achievement and a clearer evidence base of previous successes and failures with which to set the recommendations for future action. There also needed to be greater clarity on issues and fewer key priorities.

It was also disconcerting that key activities such as the Employer Ownership of Skills – Chamber-led and which supports the City Deal - are not mentioned in the document.

There are significant opportunities for the Chamber to play a key role in the delivery of the strategy, in some cases by continuing its existing work, as outlined in the summary to the Chamber’s response:

“Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce strongly supports the need for a high-level strategy for Greater Manchester to drive the economic fortunes of the sub-region and enable all partners, whether public or private, to work together to deliver a single shared coherent vision.

"The Strategy would be strengthened by building on existing evidence of the good practice and achievements of Greater Manchester to date as well as the contributions of partner organisations. Lessons from the successes of other cities around the world — our competitors — would also provide an essential benchmark against which Greater Manchester’s strategic planning should be measured.

"This Strategy needs to outline in more detail how all key partners can be more fully engaged with the development of the strategy and its outcomes and the timescales for both delivery plans and implementation. The Chamber of Commerce is already working with the Combined Authority through the Manchester Solutions review, Employer Ownership of Skills and the Skills and Employment Partnership and is keen to build further on these achievements to deliver a coherent and viable strategy for the region and to take forward with others the realisation of these important aims and objectives.”