About Manchester City Council

Manchester City Council is the local government authority for Manchester, a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. Manchester is the sixth largest city in England. Its city council is composed of 96 councillors, three for each of the 32 electoral wards of Manchester. The council is controlled by the Labour Party and led by Bev Craig. The official opposition is led by former MP for Manchester Withington from 2005–15, John Leech. There is one Green Party councillor. Joanne Roney is the chief executive.

The Our Manchester Strategy 2016–2025 sets out the future Manchester we want to see.

It details the goals that everyone in our city – our public, private, voluntary and community organisations and our residents – will work on together to put Manchester in the top flight of world cities by 2025.

Halfway through the original Strategy, we’re resetting priorities for the years to 2025, acknowledging – but looking beyond – current challenges, to make sure the city achieves its ambition.

Our Manchester Today

Manchester is still a place defined by its diversity, vibrancy and creativity. As we work for a more equal and greener future, we will continue to build upon our history of finding new ways of working and getting things done.

We’ve seen many parts of the city go through physical changes, with new housing allowing more people to live here. As more businesses have invested here, further jobs opportunities have been created for people across all our neighbourhoods. Our residents are better connected with improved transport and can enjoy a varied culture and leisure scene. As we move towards a zero-carbon future, we’re recycling more, and our parks have been protected and developed for all.

The State of the City report shows how we're doing, in line with the goals from the Our Manchester Strategy. Between 2015 and 2020, Manchester made some great progress. Our population rose twice as quickly as the average across other areas in the UK. Our educational standards rose from primary to further education. We saw increased job opportunities with our international outlook attracting more businesses, as well as students and visitors, up until the effects of COVID-19 hit in 2020. Whilst Manchester has made some great progress in many areas, some of the key challenges set out in the original Strategy remain; these will require continued focus in the years up to 2025.

Our Future Manchester

The original goal remains for Manchester to be in the top-flight of world cities by 2025 with a strong economy and highly skilled people. It will be well connected, limiting climate change and everyone will feel safe and live well in an attractive and welcoming city.

With our priorities reset we can head towards our vision of Manchester in 2025 which will:

Have a competitive, dynamic, sustainable and fair economy that draws on our strengths in science, advanced manufacturing, and culture, creative and digital businesses –cultivating and encouraging new ideas.
Possess highly skilled and enterprising people.
Be connected, internationally and with the UK.
Play our full part in limiting the impacts of climate change.
Be a place where people from all backgrounds feel safe, can aspire, succeed and live well.
Be clean, attractive, culturally rich, outward-looking and welcoming.

To get there, Manchester must put equality, inclusion and sustainability at the heart of all we do.

We can only get there if everyone works together, building on Manchester’s strong history of partnership.

To achieve our vision, our communities want a renewed focus on some key areas:

Our young people – providing investment, support, opportunity and hope for the future of the city.
Our economy – fulfilling opportunities for our residents as we create and attract a talented, globally competitive and diverse workforce.
Our health – tackling physical and mental inequalities and ensuring fair access to services.
Our housing – creating a choice of housing in liveable neighbourhoods across all the city.
Our environment – pioneering zero-carbon solutions and improving green space.
Our infrastructure – affordable and green transport and better digital connections.

In our consultation, our residents told us that we can only achieve these things by taking pride in our people and our places, and supporting everybody to live fulfilling, happy, healthy lives.

We must understand and tackle inequalities and give support where it’s most needed. Working together and finding new, creative solutions will be more important than ever as we work to improve the city for our communities.

Forward to 2025 – Manchester’s priorities

For Manchester to achieve its vision, we will refocus our efforts on these priorities to 2025.

Through each priority runs Manchester’s commitment to build a more equal, inclusive and sustainable city for everyone who lives, works, volunteers, studies and plays here. Only by working together can we achieve our vision by making an impact on our priorities of making Manchester:

A thriving and sustainable city
A highly skilled city
A progressive and equitable city
A liveable and zero-carbon city
A connected city

Delivering and monitoring our progress

As a strategy for the city of Manchester, successfully reaching our ambition will require strong partnership working and collaboration. To achieve the priorities set out in Forward to 2025, Manchester must continue to work in an ‘Our Manchester’ way.

Success depends on our people and organisations coming together so their collective knowledge, skills, effort and passion is harnessed.

We must continue to put people first; listen, learn and respond; recognise the strengths of individuals and communities; and work together to build relationships and create conversations.

Our future Manchester will be shaped by the past to deliver a better future for all.

Our Manchester Behaviours

We work together and trust each other
We’re proud and passionate about Manchester
We take time to listen and understand
We ‘own it’ and aren't afraid to try new things
We show that we value our differences and treat people fairly.