Chamber Comment on Elected Mayor for Greater Manchester

Chris Fletcher, Director of Policy & Communications at Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce

Commenting on the Elected Mayor for Greater Manchester, Chris Fletcher, Director of Policy & Communications at Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce, said: “The announcement today that Greater Manchester will get an elected mayor in return for greater local control over transport, housing, planning and policing is a genuine game changer for business and residents.

“This is the culmination of the work started by the Chancellor in Manchester in June with his Northern Powerhouse speech that focused on how to re-energise economic growth and re-position local decision making in the north of England.

“For too long many businesses have been frustrated with decisions that impacted on them either being made remotely in Whitehall or locally, but with little if any input that reflected their views. Through work that the Chamber has pioneered with elements of the local skills budget, we have shown that by having the ability to respond to local conditions quickly and with minimal fuss real progress can be made.

“Following the Scottish referendum result and the debate started in its aftermath businesses have been very engaged with looking at what future form of local governance would work best in Greater Manchester. This is an issue that sits at the heart of the Chamber’s Campaign for Business which states the major issues that businesses want to see addressed before the next election. The initial announcement today and outline of how the Manchester mayoral model would work seems to have gone some way in addressing this.

“We obviously need to see the finer details to make sure there is a recognised role for business to play in this as well as look at how more of the allocated local budget, including a reformed model for business rates, could be transferred to local control, but it is obvious from the pace and scope of the announcement that this is not only a major change in policy and local governance, but also a major opportunity for Greater Manchester . We have to make sure that business responds and reacts to take advantage of this.”