How Yorkshire can make the most of ‘Manchesterism’ - Matt Smith
When Andy Burnham talked about "good growth in every postcode" as Mayor of Greater Manchester, it resonated across the Pennines too. Now he's Prime Minister – and partly working out of Number 10 North in Manchester – the question is, how is his government going to scale ‘Manchesterism’ nationally, to also benefit communities in Leeds, Sheffield and Doncaster?
I've spent more than two decades at Key Fund – based right here in South Yorkshire – backing community and social enterprises across the region. So, I say this with some confidence: Yorkshire has the ingredients to fully capitalise on this new national approach to place-building.
South Yorkshire knows what happens when growth strategies are taken out of the areas they are supposed to benefit. The closure of the coalfields, the demise of steel, and the decades of challenge that followed for many places, aren’t just an economic story – they were a lesson in what happens when the people closest to a problem are the last to be consulted about the solution. That lesson still shapes how we work today.
Across our portfolio, we see the proof every day. In Doncaster, Higher Rhythm is building education and employment pathways into the creative industries for young people who might otherwise be locked out of them. In Sheffield, Food Works is tackling food insecurity, skills and employment gaps, and environmental waste in one move, redistributing food that would otherwise end up in landfill. Organisations like these are essential economic infrastructure, creating jobs, building skills and taking pressure off stretched public bodies and services – and ones that represent the impact social enterprises can have on communities.
Our combined authorities and local councils know this. Tracy Brabin and Oliver Coppard have shown real ambition to tackle inequality and drive sustainable growth street by street. But they don't have the capacity to do this alone. Understanding neighbourhood-level needs, building trusted relationships, dealing with long-term causes, not just symptoms – all of this takes time and deep connections. This is where community and social enterprises come into their own. But they also need support that understands their unique business models, and – as we always say at Key Fund – ‘the right money, at the right time’.
Busy public sector teams can't necessarily do this on top of everything else they're juggling. That's where social investors like us can help – not by replacing the role of the mayor or the local authority, but as a capacity extender – by absorbing the due diligence burden and ongoing relationship management, while public bodies keep hold of the strategic direction and the oversight that matters.
There's a financial logic here too, one that should appeal to any local authority keeping an eye on its expenditure. Blended finance, rather than one-off grants, means capital gets recycled – repayments from one social enterprise fund the next.
If Burnham's placemaking agenda is going to make a meaningful impact more broadly than Manchester – in places like Wheatley, where I grew up in Doncaster – it needs to be drafted with the organisations already working in these communities thoroughly embedded within the strategy. That means backing them and treating social enterprises as core delivery infrastructure rather than a nice-to-have.
Matt Smith is CEO of the Key Fund.