The Greater Manchester City Region, commonly just the Manchester City Region and sometimes the Greater Manchester Statutory City Region, is a

combined authority A combined authority is a type of local government institution introduced in England outside Greater London by the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009. Combined authorities are created voluntarily and allow a grou ...

region in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, consisting of

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...

and five

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle Ag ...

s, roughly the historic county of

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

's eastern parts. It is under the strategic governance of the

Greater Manchester Combined Authority The Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) is a combined authority for Greater Manchester, England. It was established on 1 April 2011 and consists of 11 members; 10 indirectly elected members, each a directly elected councillor from one ...

, officially designated on 1 April 2011 and has a population of 3,363,555 according to figures from the office for national statistics (2011) The Manchester City Region initially appeared as one of eight

city region City region is a term in use since about 1950 by urbanists, economists and urban planners to mean a metropolitan area and hinterland, often having a shared administration. Typically, it denotes a city, conurbation or urban zone with multiple admi ...

s defined in the 2004 strategic document '' Moving Forward: The Northern Way'', as a collaboration between three regional development agencies. It encompassed the ten districts of Greater Manchester and five neighbouring local government districts, and was suggested as an effective administrative

metropolitan area A metropolitan area or metro is a region that consists of a densely populated urban agglomeration and its surrounding territories sharing industries, commercial areas, transport network, infrastructures and housing. A metro area usually com ...

that could share resources and stimulate economic growth in northern England. In the late 2000s, the

Association of Greater Manchester Authorities The Association of Greater Manchester Authorities (AGMA) is the local government association for Greater Manchester, a metropolitan county in North West England. It was established in 1986 as a voluntary organisation to represent the ten distr ...

(AGMA) began actively lobbying for a statutory local government framework for the Manchester City Region in exchange for greater autonomy from the UK central government. They used the term 'Manchester City Region' as a synonym for 'Greater Manchester' (a metropolitan county), and excluded neighbouring districts. Following the 2009 United Kingdom Budget, the city region—abridged to the ten districts of Greater Manchester—was announced as a pilot region which could establish a formal corporate strategic government with powers comparable with the

Greater London Authority The Greater London Authority (GLA), colloquially known by the metonym "City Hall", is the devolved regional governance body of Greater London. It consists of two political branches: the executive Mayoralty (currently led by Sadiq Khan) and the ...

. AGMA agreed to the creation of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority in March 2010; on 1 April 2011 the combined authority was established.

History

Between the publication of the '' Moving Forward: The Northern Way'' in 2004, through to the

2009 structural changes to local government in England Structural changes to local government in England were effected on 1 April 2009, whereby a number of new unitary authorities were created in parts of the country which previously operated a "two-tier" system of counties and districts. In five s ...

, the Manchester City Region encompassed fifteen local government districts: the cities of

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

and

Salford Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county afte ...

plus the

metropolitan borough A metropolitan borough (or metropolitan district) is a type of local government district in England. Created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972, metropolitan boroughs are defined in English law as metropolitan districts within metropolitan ...

s of

Stockport Stockport is a town and borough in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt and Tame merge to create the River Mersey here. Most of the town is within ...

Tameside The Metropolitan Borough of Tameside is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester in England. It is named after the River Tame, Greater Manchester, River Tame, which flows through the borough, and includes the towns of Ashton-under-Lyne, Aud ...

Trafford Trafford is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England, with an estimated population of 235,493 in 2017. It covers Retrieved on 13 December 2007. and includes the area of Old Trafford and the towns of Altrincham, Stretford, Ur ...

Bolton Bolton (, locally ) is a large town in Greater Manchester in North West England, formerly a part of Lancashire. A former mill town, Bolton has been a production centre for textiles since Flemish people, Flemish weavers settled in the area i ...

Bury Bury may refer to: *The burial of human remains *-bury, a suffix in English placenames Places England * Bury, Cambridgeshire, a village * Bury, Greater Manchester, a town, historically in Lancashire ** Bury (UK Parliament constituency) (1832–19 ...

Oldham Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, amid the Pennines and between the rivers Irk and Medlock, southeast of Rochdale and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, wh ...

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...

and

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the River Douglas, Lancashire, River Douglas. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. Bolton lies to the nor ...

, together with the

s of High Peak,

Warrington Warrington () is a town and unparished area in the borough of the same name in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, on the banks of the River Mersey. It is east of Liverpool, and west of Manchester. The population in 2019 was estimat ...

and the former boroughs of

Congleton Congleton is a town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. The town is by the River Dane, south of Manchester and north of Stoke on Trent. At the 2011 Census, it had a population of 26,482. Top ...

Macclesfield Macclesfield is a market town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Bollin in the east of the county, on the edge of the Cheshire Plain, with Macclesfield Forest to its east ...

and

Vale Royal A vale is a type of valley. Vale may also refer to: Places Georgia * Vale, Georgia, a town in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region Norway * Våle, a historic municipality Portugal * Vale (Santa Maria da Feira), a former civil parish in the municipa ...

. Since the 2009 structural changes to local government in England, the

has used the term 'Manchester City Region' as a synonym for

, describing it as "a highly coherent single economic region", with reference to the "ten districts of the city region". AGMA have published that in their literature "‘Manchester’ and ‘city region’ are used to refer to Greater Manchester, which is the ten local authority Districts of Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Manchester, Rochdale, Stockport, Salford, Tameside, Trafford and Wigan". The Greater Manchester Statutory City Region was announced in the 2009 United Kingdom Budget as one of two such pilot city regions in the UK (the other being the

Leeds City Region The Leeds City Region is a local enterprise partnership city region located in West Yorkshire, England. Prior to the West Yorkshire devolution deal, the partnership covered parts of South and North Yorkshire. According to the Office for Nationa ...

). Once created, it saw the ten metropolitan borough councils of Greater Manchester banding together as a combined authority to pool resources over skills, housing, transport and economic development, in exchange for greater powers from the UK central government.

References

{{Authority control Geography of Greater Manchester Economy of Manchester Combined authorities

History

See also

References