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Manchester's Conservative party conference was a "steady-as-she-goes" event, focused on demonstrating economic competence, the merits of sticking to Plan A and the dangers of voting for Labour.
Generally it was a successful if slightly subdued affair, with few signs of disunity. Even Dave and Boris seeming to have reached an agreement to be mutually supportive.
Another surprising display of mutual support was at our reception on the Sunday night, which was attended by over 100 people in Manchester Art Gallery. Sir Richard Leese, Leader of Manchester, found himself too embarrassed to tell Eric Pickles what party delegates had said about the Secretary of State at an earlier event, so an audience member obligingly piped up and said, “We said we love you, Eric,”. In his remarks Eric then promptly returned the compliment. “I love you too, Richard” he said, to smiles all round. As always both men were great speakers and attendees had such a good time that the hints that the gallery was now closed had to move towards switching the lights off.
Cities were also a hot topic, unsurprisingly, at our roundtables on SMEs and on housing, where we discussed the importance of adapting national policy to the needs of local places.
Our flagship fringe involved a lively debate with speakers Greg Clark, Financial Secretary to the Treasury and Minister for Cities, Lord Digby Jones and Cllr Andrew Geary, Leader of Milton Keynes.
Greg argued for the importance of ‘place’ in policies around growth and said that, at their best, cities’ economic hearts beat faster than other places, and that the best city leaders “keep the heartbeat beating faster’. He also argued for the importance of understanding cities as a network and as places in which suburbs have an important role to play.
Digby emphasised the importance of businesses to wealth creation, as well as discussing the challenges and opportunities around skills, migration and apprenticeships, while Andrew talked about the challenges of cutting through Whitehall and the achievements Milton Keynes has made around the economy. A lively discussion about the opportunities to vary tax by local areas, the relationships between cities and the role cities play in skills followed.
One of the big challenges recognised in all of the debates is keeping the focus on cities when it comes to economic growth, especially now the economy is growing. We’re hoping our ‘Think Cities’ campaign will be part of a call to arms around this. Even though it is still over 20 months away, this years Party Conferences have in many senses fired the starting gun on the 2015 General Election.
We have an exciting programme of engagement lined up as part of ‘Think Cities’, designed to build momentum throughout the coming months as campaigning ramps up, and party manifestos are debated- watch this space, and please get in touch if you’d like to get involved.
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