Power to the people

Economic growth in Greater Manchester has outpaced England and the UK since devolution began

Gross value added (GVA), a measure of the value of goods and services produced in an area, has grown faster in Greater Manchester than in England or the UK since 2009. Strong productivity gains and population growth underpin that outperformance. This suggests that Greater Manchester has benefited from agglomeration gains, whereby the concentration of businesses, workers and investment in an urban area increases economic activity through improved knowledge sharing, deeper labour markets, more efficient supply chains and greater innovation.

Public control of the bus network has reversed decades of falling patronage

The Transport Act 1985 privatised bus services outside London. Annual journeys in Greater Manchester fell from 355 million in 1986 to 182 million in 2019, across a network run by 30 operators using more than 150 ticket types. Greater Manchester became the first city region outside London to franchise its buses, using powers in the Bus Services Act 2017, and introduced a £2 single fare and a £5 daily cap. Overall satisfaction rose 7 percentage points to 86 per cent and punctuality rose 8 percentage points to 76 per cent. Passenger journeys grew 41 per cent between 2022 and 2025, compared with 29 per cent across England. Had the rest of England outside London matched Greater Manchester's growth rate over the same period, roughly 85 million additional bus journeys would have been made in 2025, an increase of 5 per cent.

A £300 million loan fund has been recycled into £1 billion of housing investment

Rising build costs have opened viability gaps across England, where a development’s total costs exceed the revenue it can generate, leaving schemes unable to proceed on commercial terms. Devolution allowed the Greater Manchester Combined Authority to establish its own investment fund in 2015, seeded with a £300 million UK government grant. Lending below market rates reduced financing costs and cut the average viability gap by up to £80,500 per dwelling. The fund has since provided £957 million to 70 developments, delivering 11,000 dwellings including 680 affordable homes, and generating an estimated £15 million a year in council tax revenue. Because loans are repaid with interest, the capital has been recycled, and the approach was extended in November 2025 through the £1 billion Good Growth Fund. Applied across England’s Mayoral Strategic Authorities, £8.5 billion of public risk capital could unlock 93,600 additional homes by 2031, crowd in £21.6 billion of private investment and lift GDP by £5.6 billion while supporting 71,000 jobs.

Employment growth in high-productivity sectors is among the strongest in the country

Control of the Adult Education Budget from 2019/20 allowed Greater Manchester to align training with local employer demand, alongside the Manchester Baccalaureate and Five Sector Development Plans anchored in cluster locations across the region. The share of working-age residents with Level 4 or higher qualifications rose 7.6 percentage points between 2011 and 2021, against 6.5 percentage points across England. Jobs in above-average productivity sectors grew 26 per cent between 2015 and 2024, nearly double the 14 per cent England rate and second only to the West of England. Had England matched Manchester’s rate, annual economic activity would be £50 billion to £80 billion higher today.

Integrated health and social care improved population health, with the largest gains in the least healthy neighbourhoods

The 2015 deal gave Greater Manchester responsibility for integrating health and social care, partial control of a £6 billion health budget and full control of a £450 million transformation fund. The city region used those powers to invest in prevention, community care and locally designed interventions, delivered through a joint governance board, Local Care Organisations and pooled budgets for health and social care. The share of residents reporting good health rose 1.82 percentage points on average and 2.27 percentage points in the least healthy neighbourhoods, indicating that devolution narrowed health inequalities rather than only lifting the average. Life expectancy was on average 0.23 years higher in Greater Manchester than in matched comparison areas between 2016 and 2019.Across England, an equivalent improvement in life expectancy would add £3.1 billion a year in economic activity, the equivalent of 39,700 full-time workers.

Read the full report here.