Reflecting on her first 12 months in office, Bev Craig has a simple but serious message from Manchester to central Government. 'Trust us'.
The affable Labour leader of Manchester city council, who replaced Sir Richard Leese in the role a year ago after his record unbroken tenure of 25 years, wants Whitehall, in a nod to further devolution, to listen to what the city is saying - and doing - and show local councils more respect.
In a wide-ranging interview, Cllr Craig said she feels Manchester is in a 'stable and healthy' place with much to look forward to on the horizon. But, she says, she plans to fight hard with Government to get what's right for the city. And the fight for the right infrastructure and the right trains is set to move up a notch in the new year.
'We've only got one chance to get this right'
"There is a problem in this country around not taking long term views on infrastructure and part of that is when politicians devolve the detail to other people, you can become lost in some of what it is that you are trying to achieve," Cllr Craig says in her office inside the scaffolding-clad town hall.
"The state of the trains at the minute. There is no polite way I can describe the chaos that it is creating for commuters, to visitors and businesses. This has given real misery."
She says there was a 'consistent, coherent plan' for rail travel in the north with Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) - which is now beset by what she called continual wavering.
The Government announced in the Autumn Statement it would be scaling back on plans to build NPR in full and instead, go with 'core' plans set out in last year's Integrated Rail Plan. The plans for a new high-speed line through from Manchester to Leeds, and eventually spanning from Liverpool to Hull, were first scaled back last year - by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson - to an upgrade of the existing line.
Liz Truss, who briefly succeeded him, then vowed to reverse that decision and at this year's Tory Party conference, pledged to build the project, estimated to cost around £40 billion, as originally envisaged, including a planned brand new stop in Bradford and a link with HS2. But rumours her pledge would be overturned by Rishi Sunak were proved true in last month's Autumn statement.
It led to Business Secretary, Grant Shapps, saying there 'wasn’t really much point in going and blasting new tunnels through the Pennines' for new lines.
The current HS2 Bill, meanwhile, sees the line emerge from the ground in Ardwick before travelling on a mile-long viaduct of up to 12 metres in height to reach a new surface station. In order to then connect up to Leeds, it will have to turn back on itself and leave Piccadilly on more viaducts across east Manchester towards Yorkshire. Civic leaders here want a below ground station.
Cllr Craig said: "NPR gave us the opportunity - if you think about it and you think how close Manchester is to Leeds or to Bradford. If we were a European city, if we were a Germany, actually connection times would be more reliable and there would be better capacity. If you wanted to go to Bradford you wouldn't have to go in via Leeds and wait for a connection and get up there.
"So rather than people having to drive over the M62 on a regular basis, we could have a better connection.
"We have seen all sorts of wavering over the last year about Northern Powerhouse Rail. First we had a 'no', which became the Integrated Rail Plan, then we had a yes, then we had a 'oh she [Liz Truss] didn't really mean to say yes, she meant maybe'. Then we had a no.
"Now we have people like Grant Shapps saying why on Earth would you build tunnels? I hate to break it to him, but they have got lots of tunnels in a place called London. I'm sure we could cope.
She argues that for better connected towns and cities, connections to the capital must be in place - 'it shouldn't be one or the other'.
But she says: "If we don't get how HS2 lands into Manchester right, we are making it much more difficult for the rest of Northern Powerhouse Rail. The Government wants it to come in on 10-metre high concrete stilts through Ardwick into the city centre to sit above ground.
"We think, actually the line is already beneath the ground, keep it going to arrive at a beneath ground station like some London stations already have. That gives extra capacity to put in that line that takes you north - to Leeds, Bradford and Scotland.
"Piccadilly railway station opened in what, around 1842. It's been there a while. If we are still living with the legacy, we know that what's built in 2042 is going to be there for a very long time. You only really get it once, at least in a lifetime, if not in a century. We don't want them to get it wrong."
A special HS2 committee of MPs is going to be set up in the New Year - and Greater Manchester will be making it's case strongly and collectively.
Apart from that, Manchester, she argues, should never go 'cap in hand' to London.
'We have the answers'
"Trust us. Our people trust us," she says in a message to Government. "And we saw that in Covid. We were knocking on people's doors from getting the jabs to feeding them. We know our communities and we have proven that we are well run. By industry standards, we are well run. We know what we need.
"We are not the kind of people that fritter money away. So trust us. Listen to what we are saying Manchester needs and work with us to be able to deliver that. Not all of it is money. Some of it is trust. Some of it is power, some of it is control and some of it is respect.
"We are at the coal face on many things, so show local government the respect it deserves - it keeps communities ticking over."
Does London get a better deal than the north?
"I think it does in terms of private investment," argues coun Craig. "I think I am probably a slightly different brand of politician in that I think we are all less into trappings. London gets more per head investment than anywhere else in the UK. However, London has also got the starkest levels of wealth and health inequalities in the country.
"So this 'the north versus London' thing, I don't think it lands if you are struggling to feed your kids in London just like you are struggling in Manchester.
"If we are serious about the economy being a better economy, around the country building and making more things that we can export...if we are really serious about raising everybody's income levels and achieving growth, you can only do that by dealing with some of the imbalances that exist within our economy.
"Manchester's approach should never be going with cap in hand to Government saying, 'feel sorry for us, give us our money'.
"Because actually for us it's dead simple. Invest in trains and business will bring more money into the UK's economy. Invest in basic infrastructure that we need, help us with our housing targets and in creating a more prosperous, fairer city and city region, and you're adding into the tax bucket.
"The frustration comes that it should be a no brainer. We don't in this city do 'poor me'.
"We say we have got your economic answers. You want growth, help us. Demonstrate that. Actually, if you think about some of the stuff we are doing in Greater Manchester, around research and innovation, and what our plans are around development, it's about having those businesses that historically were more at home in that south east corridor of Oxford and Cambridge, and in and around there.
"And why are they there? It's not just the universities. It's good transport, it's good housing and it's a good quality of life. We can control the quality of life. You just have to see from winning awards right the way through to the investment we are doing with Mayfield Park, River City Park and opening other little pocket parks across the city.
"People are voting us as a good place to live. So quality of life, we are on with that. Good housing. We see in the city centre, struggles for people to rent. As much as I am committed to building social, council housing, we also need to keep the housing flow coming.
"The other bit that they can help us with is infrastructure. That's why we major so much on it - because it is out of our control."
Changing times
Coun Craig reflects on an almost unprecedented, year nationally, with three Prime Minister and the death of Queen Elizabeth II. But, she says, her taking the reigns from Sir Richard was smooth and calm - purposely so.
"It's fair to say it's been a strange time nationally, looking back I probably wouldn’t have expected there to be three Prime Ministers and, what, 40-odd cabinet ministers.
"But I can genuinely say that whilst we’ve faced some big problems as a country, in Manchester it feels that we're in a stable and healthy place. It feels like we're asking all the right questions of ourselves and cracking on and delivering things. So it's been a good year and most importantly, I'm still enjoying it.
"We [Sir Richard] both made a very intentional decision that it had to be grown up, mature and it could be done in a stable way.
"I think genuinely we've done that. It’s difficult to point to other places that have moved from a long term leader to a new leader that has managed to pull it off in terms of stability. You look at other big cities, you look at the national Government and that’s what I mean about us being in a really good place.
"There are things that are different. For me the approach has always been around growing what is successful in Manchester, the things that we’ve got right, and having the confidence to be able to say, well actually this is what we have got right, but then also being able to apply and refresh the things that maybe we need to change direction or got at with vigour.
"To do it [the handover of power] in such a way has been what has enabled that and some of that has required the confidence to be able to say, actually, this is about the city. This isn't about an individual personality. It's not about me coming in and saying nothing was good before I was here because actually, my predecessor made a massive commitment to Manchester and did lots of great things.
"So when you start from that position and you recognise that actually the ability for Manchester to continue to grow but to think about how people benefit from that growth."
'We saw the cost of living crisis coming'
"I suppose that every period of national Government has unprecedented times, but some of us did have foresight. If you think about the cost of living crisis, when we set our budget back last March we knew that a potentially recession was a problem, we knew that inflation would likely be a problem, so we spent over £34m on our budget on voluntary and community organisations to work around how we can alleviate poverty.
"If we can see that from Manchester, actually national politicians should be able to see that as well. Nobody could have predicted Ukraine or the death of a monarch but actually it's Government's job to govern. And I think what we've done in the city has shown that you can keep things going and still have ambition for the future, but of course the national situation has hampered us."
Coun Craig, the city's first female and first openly gay leader, was brought up in Greenisland, a town eight miles outside Belfast. Politics, she admits, never came into her thinking.
"I've always been really honest that growing up, as a kid on a council estate, it was never in my wildest dreams that a) I'd be a politician or b) that I'd end up somewhere where I'd be leading the city council that I love. You come into this place everyday and you come in with a real sense of not just pride, but of hunger.
"It makes me happy to have this job but it makes me hungry that there is an awful lot that we still want to do for the city. If you don't get into politics to make the world a better place, then why are you here?
But she acknowledges that many people, especially the young, are now frustrated with politics.
"The vast majority of people probably feel that politics has been too much in their face over the last few years," she says. "I think people are interested, but sometimes politics makes it sound like it's too complicated.
"For example, when you knock on a door and have a chat and people say to you, well 'I don't do politics'.
"And it's like 'do you care about the NHS…what's your job?....oh you're a teacher, so you want to help kids...people can give you really clear views on loads of issues but when you package it up as politics, it sounds like its alienating, scary. So it's politicians' jobs to make politics more accessible for people."
Speaking to the young, Cllr Craig says she gets two things back - what the future holds, a mixture of anxiety and worry around jobs, housing and the climate, and a need for optimism.
"What they really want is not to be told how terrible the world is, but they want optimism. They want to know that if they work hard at school they can have opportunities. That for me is the bit that resonates with Manchester - one of the things that we try to do here. When we talk about good quality jobs, when we talk about attracting big tech companies or growing start ups, we're not talking about important people from across the world, but we're saying to all young people from Moston or Moss Side - 'that's you'."
'No-one should have to spend a third of their income on rent'
Coun Craig said housing was, and is, a massive issue and pointed to the council's housing plan for 36,000 new homes - 10,000 of them 'genuinely affordable'. "Nobody should have to pay over a third of their income on their rent," she says.
She said the council has 'intentionally started in Ancoats and the Northern Quarter to show that you can build in the city centre and it can be affordable'.
"It's not just a strategy - it's not just all talk," she says. "By the end of this financial year, by the end of March, we will have built 534 homes this year, but we were already working on over 1,280 homes, currently, at the moment, is being built - this is all affordable. We have got planning approved for 1,100 homes and another 2,300 homes awaiting planning."
Wythenshawe - almost the same size of Preston - has been prioritised with what she called a 'massive masterplan' and coun Craig also highlighted the Victoria North development out of north Manchester. Opening libraries goes against national trend, she says, but two have been opened here, in Gorton and Moss Side. But changes to national Government, she adds, has made discussion frustrating.
"To get to the end of the financial year, to have balanced your books, to not be overspending on our adults or children's services, when everybody else is nationally, and for the only thing to be driving the fact that we might have to make reductions next year is inflation, and lack of support from Government, is probably the most galling thing.
"We do work hard to make sure that Manchester people get good value for money as part of what we do in the city."
Coun Craig says the council has spent time 'reflecting and fine-tuning things'. She pointed to the council's housing strategy and homelessness as focuses for the new year - 'making sure it can be the best that it can be'.
"There's something for me in the new year that quite suddenly, if you take housing for example, you will see some of that will accelerate. I think some of the risks for the new year, of course, are around the wider economic situation of the country. I've had a very busy year and there's no intention of taking the foot off the gas.
"Some of the stuff that we have got coming forward is really quite exciting - from beginning work on Victoria North through to what we are going to do around Wythenshawe, to places that Moston, we have been doing some work around what their district centre means to them."
No one else has mentioned it, apart from me in this interview, but she flatly slaps down any suggestion of standing for Parliament.
"I am a year in, I have been really clear that I didn't see this job as a route to somewhere else. This job is special enough of itself. What I do want is a lot more of my Labour lot to get into Parliament to have a Labour Government because I think the city will thrive and do better under that.
"But I'm not a career politician - I have not done this to think 'oh, where's my next step'. It's clear she loves her adoptive city.
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