Our Manchester Strategy 2016
In winter 2015, we asked people what their Manchester of the future could look like, and what their hopes and dreams were for the city they live in.
The first Our Manchester Strategy set a long-term vision for Manchester’s future and described how we aimed to achieve it. It provided a framework for actions by our partners working across Manchester – public sector organisations, businesses, the voluntary sector and our communities.
It was not a strategy for the Council, but for Manchester. We all continue to have a role to play in making our city the best it can be, and this was where the strategy started.
Request a pdf of the original Our Manchester Strategy document.
Vision from 2016
Our vision is for Manchester to be in the top flight of world-class cities by 2025, when the city will:
- Have a competitive, dynamic and sustainable economy that draws on our distinctive strengths in science, advanced manufacturing, culture, and creative and digital business – cultivating and encouraging new ideas.
- Possess highly skilled, enterprising and industrious people.
- Be connected, internationally and within the UK.
- Play its full part in limiting the impacts of climate change.
- Be a place where residents from all backgrounds feel safe, can aspire, succeed and live well. Be clean, attractive, culturally rich, outward-looking and welcoming.
Progress
Each year we showed our collective progress towards these goals through the State of the City Report, which is organised according to five key themes:
- A thriving and sustainable city: Supporting a diverse and distinctive economy that creates jobs and opportunities
- A highly skilled city: World-class and home-grown talent sustaining the city’s economic success
- A progressive and equitable city: Making a positive contribution by unlocking the potential of our communities
- A liveable and low carbon city: A destination of choice to live, visit and work
- A connected city: World-class infrastructure and connectivity to drive growth.
Read the State of the City reports.
Our Manchester now
In 2020, the strategy was refreshed with further public consultation. Read about Our Manchester Strategy - Forward to 2025.
In April 2025, our latest Our Manchester Strategy: 2025-25 was published.