Doing things differently - Can Manchesterism create a UK that is a great place to grow old?
Andy Burnham vowed to do things differently as he became the UK’s fourth prime minister in five years last month.
Will the place-based approach the former mayor used in Greater Manchester work for the rest of the country, writes our Chief Executive, Dr Carole Easton OBE.
Every prime minister must outline their vision for governing. Often this can be distilled into a simple phrase which can come to define their time in office, for good or bad.
For David Cameron, it was Big Society. For Boris Johnson, it was Levelling Up. How will Andy Burnham try to define his approach?
Manchesterism is already being put about as the definition of the Burnham approach. And underpinning this approach, another telling phase was uttered twice by the former Greater Manchester Mayor in his first major policy speech as he emerged as the leading candidate to become the next Prime Minister. Place-based.
It was a phrase that will have delighted his supporters who are hoping his time in Number 10 will be defined by an acceleration of powers away from Westminster and into regions and neighbourhoods.
It was also a phrase picked-up by the political commentariat, with some suggesting it indicated Burnham is no Establishment outsider but another career politician using jargon that means little to voters outside of the Westminster bubble.
As an organisation that has been heavily involved in place-based initiatives around the country, we know the approach is more than just political jargon. But we also understand the scepticism, and the risk that it could go the same way as political buzzwords of the past with little impact made to people’s lives.
At its core, a place-based approach is the belief that the organisations and people in a place are the best ones to make decisions about how money should be spent there. The idea isn’t new, or particularly revolutionary. But with the dawning of a new political age, it is set to have its moment in the sun.
When Andy Burnham was elected Mayor of Greater Manchester in 2017, he pledged to make the region ‘the best place to grow older.’ That meant tackling some of the serious issues older people face such as pensioner poverty, unsafe homes that pose a serious risk to their safety, feeling isolated and unable to engage with their local communities.
His commitments included building age-friendly homes, reducing digital exclusion among older people, and improving employment and skills support for people aged 50 and over. These pledges were formalised in the 2017 Greater Manchester Strategy with the need for a place-based approach identified throughout. Greater Manchester is now held up globally as an exemplar Age-friendly city region by the World Health Organisation.
However, Greater Manchester also remains somewhat of an outlier. Demographic change, and adapting to the indisputable fact that a larger and larger proportion of our population will be aged above 50 over the coming decades, does not feature in most strategic authority plans. This is partly due to the fact the issue has not been a priority of national government during the period most strategic authorities have been created. We hope this might change now.
When it comes to ageing well, we have found that issues such as housing, transport, employment and social connection are interconnected and often need coordinated local solutions. One size does not always fit all and this is where place-based approaches are needed. Especially when people’s experience of ageing can vary so enormously based on where they live.
As an organisation that has been in a formal partnership with Greater Manchester Combined Authority since 2016, we have seen the practical application of Manchesterism and the place-based approach up close.
The success of a number of policies in Greater Manchester provides a glimpse of the ideas that the new Prime Minister could bring from the mayoralty into Downing Street.
- Good Homes: The government is already looking to Mayors to play a lead role in strategies setting targets for accessible new homes in their region. Greater Manchester’s Housing, Planning and Ageing Group published an age-friendly guide for developers, designers, and policymakers. Regional retrofit and warm homes plans can also address the shocking state of poor-quality housing stock, over half of which are lived in by older people. Greater Manchester’s Housing First programme puts housing standards as well as new builds at the heart of its offer.
- Good Work: Devolution of employment and skills support offers the chance to develop local programmes that better meet the needs of workers in mid and later life. Different local labour markets have different challenges and opportunities, with some thriving and some struggling sectors. A top-down, one-size all approach is unlikely to work in that scenario. We worked with Greater Manchester to develop and test new approaches to employment support and helping to engage people in the 50+ age group.
- Putting power in the hands of people and the places they live: As an Age-friendly city region, Greater Manchester follows the World Health Organisation’s framework to embed older people’s voice, cross system working, and evidence into a programme of work. Greater Manchester’s Older People’s Network, with more than 700 members working closely with local universities as well as organisations across housing, transport, business and the voluntary sector, is an example of the cross-sector working that Andy Burnham is pushing for more of in Whitehall.
Good infrastructure: Devolved transport powers, including bus franchising, could improve access, coverage and reliability if implemented well. Greater Manchester’s Bee Network is an example of how this can work to build a more integrated, affordable and accessible transport infrastructure. Greater Manchester also recently permanently extended the older person’s bus pass to allow access before 9:30am. Better transport, walking routes, accessible public spaces and local infrastructure are essential to enabling people to continue to participate fully in community life as they get older.
There is no doubt that we will hear a lot more about the place-based approach during Andy Burnham’s time as prime minister. It is an approach that has the potential to tackle some of the key drivers of inequalities in ageing: poor housing, unsuitable work, inaccessible transport and public spaces, and limited community voice.
To realise this potential, Andy Burnham will need to ensure strategic authorities and local authorities embed ageing and inclusion across their new powers. This is increasingly important as the UK’s population rapidly ages, changing the shape of our whole society and economy. It affects where and how we live, the length and nature of our working lives, how we care for one another, and the long‑term sustainability of our health and care systems.
In practice, this means using evidence, building an eco-system of partners across sectors, and involving older residents directly in the design of homes, services, transport and employment support so that they work better for people of all ages.
Deliver this, and place-based Manchesterism might have a shot at being more than just another political buzzword.
