Duncan Firths Talks Levelling Up With Andy Burnham

At a recent roundtable with engineering firm WSP, Walker Sime’s MD Duncan Firth and others joined Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham to discuss what ‘levelling up’ really means for the area.

The Government’s Levelling Up White Paper saw Greater Manchester and the West Midlands invited to be “trailblazer” regions and to act as “blueprints” for others to follow. But what opportunities and risks does the levelling up agenda create for Greater Manchester?

This question was the focus of a recent WSP-hosted event entitled ‘Thriving Towns: What this means for Greater Manchester’. Joining guest of honour Andy Burnham was a panel of experts from across the public and private sector including Duncan Firth, Walker Sime MD and Chair of the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce Property and Construction Group.

The panel explored how, as a built environment community, it can support the mayor to deliver on his priorities around health, wellbeing, work and jobs, housing, transport, skills, training, and economic growth, as set out in Manchester’s Places for Everyone plan.

After the event, Duncan said, “This was a really important meeting of people who share a common agenda: to use our capabilities to level up the Greater Manchester region, to deliver social value and security for its people, and to deliver the net zero agenda. The construction sector plays a vital role in all of that. We’re not building for buildings’ sake – we’re building to make a difference. It was good to be able to hear at first hand the Mayor’s vision for inclusive and clean economic growth in Greater Manchester, and the role we can continue to play in that.”