Work hard, play hard

A conservative think-tank claimed this month that northern cities have no future and their residents should move south to have a better quality of life.

So as we mark another Manchester Pride as the event’s official newspaper, we review why the city is now thriving and can even compete with London.

With work-life balance a hot topic in employment circles and topping wish-lists for job seekers, Manchester offers an enticing mix of work and play options all bundled together in a manageable package.

Size
Size isn’t everything after all. While London offers the biggest of everything, Manchester packs a lot of punch into its city centre. As the UK’s largest regional economy it has the economic punch to offer plenty of job scope to its inhabitants yet the average job commute is only 30 minutes – even less for those who live in the city centre.

Andrew Schuster, now working in London, remembers fondly his days studying at the Manchester Business School: “Living in Manchester wasn’t as difficult as living in London because in Manchester you can live in the heart of the city and have access to the theatre, to the gay life on Canal Street, to the restaurants, to a leading business school and to the train station – all within walking distance of one another.”

Location
“It’s a big city. There are all the cultural things going on, but also you can get out of Manchester very easily and be in the countryside in half an hour,” points out Paul Benson-Hannam, a born and bred Mancunian. “You’ve got the Cheshire countryside, Peak District and the Pennines. In an hour you can even be in the Lake District.”

Transport
Manchester is criss-crossed with excellent bus routes and the most successful light-rail system (Metrolink) in the UK, which makes getting around a breeze.

There are three train stations offering over 50 trains a day to London with a journey time of just over two hours. The Manchester International Airport accommodates 22 million passengers annually with daily direct flights to over 200 destinations. Manchester is tapped in locally, nationally and internationally.

Employers
Almost 2,000 internationally owned companies have a presence in Manchester. Recently it has been crowned as Britain’s Most Creative City and also Britain’s Best City for Business.

Sixty-five out of the FTSE 100 companies are represented in Manchester and 32 out of the top 100 employers for gay people in Britain (according to gay campaign group Stonewall) have a presence in Manchester including Manchester City Council, the Greater Manchester Police force and the Co-operative Group who are headquartered in Manchester.

Sixty banks, including 40 overseas ones, are based in Manchester and the BBC is moving five departments and over 1,500 jobs to the Greater Manchester area.

Mediacity:UK
Salford will be home to Great Britain’s first purpose-built media city. It will house such media institutions as BBC Sport, Radio Five Live, and Children’s BBC and over 15,000 people in the creative and media industries will work there daily. Auntie is moving there in 2011.

Spinningfields
Another exciting development for Manchester promises to be the largest commercial development in Europe.
Like Canary Wharf in London and La Défense in Paris, Spinningfields will offer over 2.37 million square feet of office space to house 25,000 workers. It will be home to Manchester’s vibrant financial and professional services industries. These industries, which include insurance, retail finance, corporate finance, law and accountancy already employ over 240,000 people in Manchester and generate annual wealth of over £9 billion.
Spinningfields will also offer residential units, shops, restaurants and bars making it a great place to work and play. Many of the major tenants have already moved in and the development is due to be completed in the next five years.

Housing
Manchester has great accommodation options, from trendy city centre flats and lofts, to large family homes. And they are a bargain compared to London. The average house price in Manchester comes in at £152,000 versus £358,000 in London.
Not only are prices more favourable but Manchester homes are generally larger than their London counterparts.

Universities
Whether you are looking to broaden your own qualifications or hire a talented graduate, Manchester’s four major universities have you covered.
There are over 100,000 students studying at the universities and over 12,500 foreign students who offer employers broad language skills and knowledge of foreign markets.
The University of Manchester is the UK’s largest single-site university and the Manchester Business School is ranked as the third best outside of America by Forbes magazine. The Royal Northern College of Music is one of Europe’s top music conservatories and ensures that Manchester’s orchestras remain world class.

Shopping
Where do you enjoy spending the fruits of your labour? In Manchester’s myriad of shops.
It’s no wonder that all the footballer’s WAGs flock to Manchester – its shopping is unparalleled and the city has undergone a huge regeneration since the IRA bomb devastated the shopping area in 1996.
The big glamour department stores are here with both Selfridges and Harvey Nichols crammed with designer names. Or head to King Street where Vivienne Westwood, DKNY and Armani all have shops. If you are after something funkier, try the vintage stores in the Northern Quarter or the Tib Street fashion market.

Canal Street
Home to gay life in Manchester, Canal Street and its surroundings has more gay bars, pubs and clubs than you could get through in one weekend.
Canal Street is the perfect place to meet for a meal and a night out. Peter Blythin, who recently returned to Manchester after working for a period in London, points out that London’s gay life is made up of a number of different gay ghettos. Vauxhall, Soho, East London – London’s gay life is actually quite fractured which means a night out might be across several different locations. In Manchester queer life is all focussed around Canal Street meaning more time celebrating and less time travelling.

You do the maths 
                                    London                       Manchester
Population                   7.5 million                  2.25 million
Density                        10,700 people/km sq  3,900 people/km sq
Median salary              £31,700                      £24,200
Average house price    £358,500                    £152,000
Average commute       45 minutes                  30 minutes