These days Manchester is globally renowned due to its two incredibly successful football teams, City with their magnificent Etihad stadium and United with Old Trafford, or the ‘Theatre of Dreams’ as it’s known, both of which have won enough trophies in the last 30 years to satisfy any fan, but Manchester is far more than just the home of football. It is also a booming centre for business, the cultural heart of the North-West and a buzzing city that is going through a period of regeneration.
Back in the 18th and 19th Centuries, Manchester was the industrial centre of Europe, if not the world. It produced so much cotton and cotton products that it gained the nickname Cottonopolis. For 250 years, Manchester ruled the industrial world, exporting goods by rail to Liverpool and London and by ship from its port on the Irish Sea, connected to the city by the Manchester Ship Canal. After World War II, however, production slowed and eventually practically stopped and the city went through a period of poverty, neglect and high unemployment rates…
it certainly wasn’t the booming industrial capital that it once was. This continued for a good 40 years until the early 1990s when the Britpop movement, led by local bands such as Oasis, brought Manchester out of the darkness and back into the limelight. Manchester, or Madchester as it became known because of its vibrant music scene and nightlife, was back!.
Although the blossoming arts and music scene helped Manchester to regain some of its old prowess and self-respect, it was still suffering from having a reputation as a bit of a dead dinosaur as far as cities like London were concerned… all of the power was still based down in the South, and they didn’t seem to care too much what happened Up North. This all changed, however, in 2015 with the introduction of the Northern Powerhouse initiative. This was a plan to devolve power away from Westmister and put it directly into the local mayors and council leaders in these under-performing Northern cities. Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Newcastle and 8 other towns and cities were earmarked for massive investment in education, business, culture and housing.
Over the past five years, Manchester has experienced huge population growth, especially in its city centre, with people flocking back to the city. It’s current population of 495,000 is increasing daily and an average 6% year on year increase is expected over the next 10 years and on into the future. Is it any wonder? Manchester has everything - culture, sport, the Pennines national Park on your doorstep and property at half the price it is in Oxford or London. So you’d better be quick if you want to join the throngs that are moving to Manchester… it’s filling up fast.
