People power: How community will make Manchester great again

“It’s about building relationships and trust, because if you’ve got trust there in the community, anything’s possible.” It is a simple concept from Victoria Armstrong, the founder and chief executive of Manchester-based day centre, Oasis Centre, but a really powerful one. Especially as the UK starts to rebuild from the shutdown of towns and cities and the economy in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham has said that people need to be put at the heart of the solutions the region finds to rebuild over the months and years ahead. He is not alone in that view. “It’s so important that we start with people, which then goes into community, which then enhances culture,” adds Armstrong. “We were already, pre-pandemic, recognising that we have to be listening to our communities and hearing what they need and using the community to be the answer to that need.” Community and public value were fast becoming buzzwords in real estate, even before Covid-19, but the pandemic has acted as somewhat of an accelerant, says Chris Cheap, UK regions managing director at Avison Young. “Occupiers drive the whole real estate machine and have increasingly realised that people are central to everything they do. As we return to some sort of normality, we will see an increased focus on creating workspaces that have people central to them,” he says. But what does that mean in a practical sense? For LCR’s regional director North West Adam Wisher, it is about unlocking sites that make it easier for people to work between home and the office. It is about activating development around smaller suburban stations and creating space for charitable business, social enterprise, community space and co-working. And it is about engaging, properly and authentically, with the community. Occupiers drive the whole real estate machine and have increasingly realised that people are central to everything they do. As we return to some sort of normality, we will see an increased focus on creating workspaces that have people central to them – Chris Cheap, UK regions managing director at Avison Young And that is something that LCR and its colleagues that form the Mayfield Partnership – Manchester City Council, Transport for Greater Manchester and U+I – have got kudos for. Mark Fletcher, chief executive of Manchester Pride, heaps praise on the partnership for the work it has done around engaging with the LGBTQ community and recognising that people are essential to the creation and success of any development. “Everything they wanted to do had the community at the heart of it,” says Fletcher. “It was real, genuine, authentic engagement. The way in which they became engaged was wholeheartedly authentic. They created an opportunity for us to have a space to host our celebration. They were talking to communities and making sure they felt part of what was being developed in the area.” For Avison Young’s Cheap, the will and desire from both developers and civic leadership to deliver social investment is clear. What is less clear is how to capture the value of that social impact. “It needs to be driven by culture,” says Cheap. “At the moment, beyond planning, we’re not really capturing it properly. We’re letting developers potentially choose whether they want to engage in a socially aware way. We need to drive a culture and we need to make sure we’re encouraging that culture from the top down.” He says that more needs to be done to enable commercially driven developers to engage fully in social value. “There is an element in this about valuation and the RICS needs to bring it into how they adopt approaches to valuation so that social credits can be captured and more emphasis can be put on delivering products that have social impact.” But delivering social value, putting people first and engaging with communities won’t matter if the funding to deliver projects is not available. For LCR’s Wisher, this is his biggest concern for the Greater Manchester region going forward. He says that getting the right funding into regeneration projects is going to be key. “When the markets do emerge we need to make sure that the money is there to unlock some of these sites,” says Wisher. “That will really help Greater Manchester return quickly.” “This is the time for local authorities to step up,” adds Cheap. “This is the time for local authorities to lead across Greater Manchester. It’s time for them to use their covenants to help deliver regeneration, to help deliver everything we need them to do at the moment. The private sector is out there to work with them, to help deliver skills, to help deliver what we need across Greater Manchester. But it’s time for local authorities to really step up and take that lead.” And while accessing funding from central government may be difficult, Cheap believes that Greater Manchester, as a collective between public and private, has the power to deliver. “We’ve done it before,” he says. And with authentic engagement and a real focus on people first, Greater Manchester will, no doubt, do it again. Click here to listen to the debate in full along with the other Future of Manchester sessions >> The panel Victoria Armstrong, chief executive and founder, Oasis Centre Chris Cheap, principal, managing director of UK regions, Avison Young Mark Fletcher, chief executive, Manchester Pride Adam Wisher, regional director North West, partnerships and property, LCR     To send feedback, e-mail samantha.mcclary@egi.co.uk or tweet @samanthamcclary or @estatesgazette