Ahead of MIPIM 2025, Manchester Invest Partners gained an exclusive invite to hear from newly in post Chief Executive of Manchester City Council Tom Stannard about his priorities, passions and goals for the world-leading property conference.
This week, the Manchester Invest Partnership gathered at KPMG’s Manchester City Centre Office ahead of MIPIM 2025 for a night of networking and discussions about the event behind the stunning backdrop of the Manchester Skyline.
With a great turnout of partners, the event showed the power of partnership across the region and gave unrivalled access to new leadership at the beginning of a new era for the city.
The event gave partners an exclusive chance to hear from Tom Stannard, Manchester City Council’s new chief executive just two weeks into his time in office. Discussion was focused on Manchester’s growth journey and how new leadership can play a role in this. Having seen vast transformation in the last 20 years, becoming a vibrant city with a diverse economy, Manchester is ready to spearhead the next decade of growth with benefits felt across the wider city-region. Tom outlined how he plans to use ‘hard work, hard graft and long term commitment’ to achieve further economic growth for the city and building on the legacy of his predecessors.
The ‘In Conversation With’ format, hosted by Adam Posner from KPMG gave the partnership exclusive insight into Tom’s priorities while he’s in the role, his passion and dedication for the city and his priorities for MIPIM 2025 – his first major event in post.
To begin the conversation, Adam and Tom dove into the new Chief Exec’s background in local government, looking at his career so far and how it can influence his time at Manchester City Council. As part of this chat he discussed his personal and professional drivers which will influence his priorities going forward.
Tom Stannard said “Part of my motivation has been working in places that are ultra diverse. When you look at the places I’ve worked, all in a sense are at the wrong end of the deprivation and inequality scale but are areas where I’ve been really proud to have an impact. I’ve made that my mission on a professional and personal level.
“In a sense Manchester is immensely proud of its record in the last 10-20 years, and rightly so. But Manchester is also a city with socio-economic deprivation and we don’t wear that on our sleeve. This is the beginning of the journey and making the transformation across the city have a real impact. You have to connect development to opportunity.”
Tom outlined that his main ambition is to irradicate poverty and equality in Manchester, stating that his main priorities were creating affordable housing, focusing on skills and improving the labour market to allow people to progress. He outlined that doing this collaboratively with the private sector is a crucial part of ‘the ethos of the city’ and highlighted the strength in working together to achieve a common goal. He alluded to the role the property sector has to play in delivering affordable homes, but noted support from Government was key. He also highlighted that a focus on skills provisions is not just for young people, and that one objective he hopes to achieve is ‘making adult education fashionable again’ as reskilling the working age labour market across the region is ‘the biggest opportunity we have’. He called on businesses in the room to support this, by helping to improve green skills and access to opportunities in their respective sectors.
One of the key points Tom Stannard touched on was the potential of expanding Manchester City Centre’s boundaries and collaborating with other local authorities to maximise opportunity. Particularly in reference to his time spearheading Salford City Council, he praised collaboration across geographies and the cooperative nature of Greater Manchester.
“Manchester and Salford have a lot of similarities. Manchester has a greater level of confidence and that’s because of the confidence and stability of the political leadership in the city. What we’ve done is broaden the development area across the river. The relationship between the two cities is at a high point now. The future of GM depends on the two cities working together.
“The marketing and magnetism of Manchester is not just what’s in the Manchester boundary, it’s bigger than that. The two cities for me, are a really important part of the future part of GM’s future”
Partnership and collaboration is something that Manchester has always prided itself on, whether that’s working closely with other city-regions like our innovation partnership with Cambridge or forging long-term relations with the private sector.
"There’s a passion around Manchester. The sense that we’re in this together and we’re a strong partnership in GM is infectious, it breeds a common sense of excitement in the pipeline and drive to get things done. It creates a region that is collaborative. If you look at how far the city has come in the last 20 years, for me, the single most exciting bit is what might happen over the next 20 years. A lot of it is in planning but a lot of it is unimaginable and that excitement is immense, it blows you away.
To the private sector, stability is everything. Stability in leadership, in vision. Manchester’s record speaks for itself in that respect."
The world-leading property conference will be Tom’s first event on the world stage as the leader of Manchester City Council, and a chance to show the strength of our new leadership to global property investors. During the discussion, Tom commented that it is the ideal opportunity to show the excitement behind Manchester’s property scene and the enormous potential of the region’s growth plan in the city-centre and beyond. His focus is stretching the boundaries of the city centre, showcasing projects like Holt Town, Strangeways (which will have a dedicated session on the Manchester stand) and Sports City as well as the potential of towns like the regeneration of Wythenshawe and the opportunity surrounding North Manchester Hospital.
“The developable geography of Manchester is expanding is really exciting. Yes the city centre and housing issues are important, but a couple of specific investment propositions that we’re working to bring the hinterlands forward will be a key topic for us.”
You can view the Manchester at MIPIM 2025 programme here
Learn more about who is joining us at MIPIM 2025 as part of the official delegation and find out how to join us at future events.