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Manchester politics

Manchester's administration is run on the cabinet model with the highest authority resting in the Council Leader, at present Richard Leese.  The leader can only be drawn from an elected councillor.  However a great deal of authority and influence resides with the Chief Executive, an unelected official, currently Sir Howard Bernstein.  The Lord Mayor's office is honorary and wields no-effective power.  There are 99 councillors, 76 of which are Labour, 1 Independent and 22 Liberal Democrats.  There are no Conservative Councillors. 

The cabinet model has been responsible for notable triumphs of late.  These include revitalising the city centre, particularly after the 1996 bomb, the completely successful delivery of the Commonwealth Games and good social initiatives in several parts of the poor inner city areas of Manchester such as Hulme and East Manchester - although seemingly intractable problems remain.

This achievement has been all the more remarkable given the gross reduction in local authority power over the last fifty years.  Responsibility over services such as education and the utilities plus the management of huge numbers of council owned houses have been, at various periods, eroded or removed.

One of the worse periods for this loss of authority occurred during Margaret Thatcher's government in the '80s.  The wholesale restructuring of the British economy, and the effective dismantling of heavy manufacturing by the government, hit the north hard.  Mass unemployment savaged areas such as Greater Manchester.  Socialist city councils in attempting to fight back went militant.  This in turn discredited them with the government and resulted in the creation of centralised, undemocratic quangos.

It was up to Manchester to find its own way out of the sorry mess.  Under the leadership of Graham Stringer, at one time a militant left-winger himself, they ditched the blanket application of municipal socialism and took a more pragmatic approach.  As the '80s gave way to the '90s Manchester started to restore itself by developing a climate of free enterprise and job creation whilst retaining its commitment to public services.  Most importantly it began to work with the private sector in planning, in raising monies and delivering large scale change.  This remarkable U-turn has resulted in Manchester now being considered, internationally, as a model city for public/private partnership.

Politically one huge problem remains.  Whilst the regional population has remained stable and that in the travel to work areas to the south dramatically increased, the population in the inner city areas of Manchester and Salford has halved - despite the growth of wealthy city centre dwelling.  Partly this is down to the short-sighted export of thousands from the city in the '50s and '60s in the name of slum clearaance, partly it's down to the flight to the suburbs.  With the city effectively a one party state and faced with a predictable outcome, local democracy in the inner city is in crisis (as it is generally in the UK), with very low turnouts for local elections.  Manchester, rather than Greater Manchester, finds itself trapped in its C19 boundaries facing the task of competing internationally at the highest level without the support of a large wealthy population.

The challenge for the next few decades is to resolve the problem.  Given the minimal impact of an executive Mayor in London, the elected Mayor solution for Manchester seems a non-starter.  Perhaps the proposal for a Regional Assembly for the North West might galvanise interest and increase local democratic control - although many feel that adding another layer of bureaucracy is a terrifying prospect.  Time will tell. 

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