Former Manchester Council chief govt Sir Howard Bernstein – the person broadly credited with main town’s twenty first century renaissance – has died aged 71. He left behind his spouse, Vanessa, two youngsters and three sons.
Sir Howard joined town council as an 18-year-old as a junior staffer in 1971, and rose to develop into one of many UK’s strongest civil servants exterior Whitehall, with a popularity for his means to chop offers.
Together with former council leaders Graham Stringer and Sir Richard Leese, he oversaw Manchester’s outstanding transformation from the post-industrial doldrums of the Eighties to the busy, fashionable metropolis of at the moment.
Learn extra: Sir Howard Bernstein – the person who modified the face of Manchester
The numerous tasks bearing his stamp embody the Hulme refurbishment, the Commonwealth Video games, the success of Manchester Airport, the rebuilding after the 1996 IRA bomb, the Metrolink, Bridgewater Corridor and devolution.
Sir Howard, the eldest of two brothers, was born right into a Jewish household in Cheetham Hill in 1953. His father, Maurice – whose dad and mom emigrated from Russia within the twentieth century – offered raincoats on Cheetham Hill Street above a laundromat reverse the bookshop.
In a 2016 interview with manchester night information, Sir Howard instructed how his Jewish upbringing in the course of the Second World Conflict formed his outlook on life – and that it could form his house metropolis. “My father was at all times … apolitical, however he was very socially aware,” he stated.
“I believe most Jewish households had been in that period, the place they got here from, the place their dad and mom got here from. Being locally was key. Treating folks with respect, working throughout the group – it was at all times seen as very, crucial.
From humble beginnings, his first council job got here with an annual wage of £500, Sir Howard rapidly rose to the ranks of town council. However when Graham Stringer, the present MP for Blakely and Broughton, turned chief of the council in 1984, his profession actually started to take off.
Though a junior officer, Sir Howard impressed the brand new commander together with his power and tenacity in combating the unfair competitors case towards Stansted Airport. Within the years that adopted, collectively they started to reinvent their hometown.
Though they represented an virtually solely Labor council, they had been adamant that if the council was to develop and prosper, Manchester must work extra intently with the personal sector and the Conservative authorities. It was a choice steeped in pragmatism, and one that might have an unlimited impression on the Council’s pondering within the years and a long time that adopted.
“You need to work with authorities, due to the utterly centralized approach by which it handles energy,” Sir Howard as soon as stated of the expectations that might outline his tenure. “You’ll be able to have the Liverpool method, which within the Eighties was a wrestle.
“Or you possibly can acknowledge that there are critical deficiencies in nationwide insurance policies and attempt to overcome them by convincing them and dealing with them the place you possibly can.” In Minister Michael Heseltine, Sir Howard discovered a prepared and influential ally. They first got here collectively within the Holm renovation in 1991.
However it will likely be their work on plans to rebuild town middle within the wake of the devastation of the 1996 IRA bomb that may maybe have the best impression on Manchester. Famously, Heseltine agreed to boost £100 million within the time it took Sir Howard and Sir Richard Leese to get a taxi from a gathering in his Westminster workplace to Euston station.
Then the exhausting work actually started, as Sir Howard had to make use of all his well-known negotiating powers to influence and cajole numerous financial pursuits into becoming a member of the grand imaginative and prescient.
He succeeded. In the end, Manchester obtained practically £600 million of private and non-private sector funds, with the large-scale rebuilding now seen as a significant catalyst for the broader regeneration that adopted and a landmark second in city regeneration.
At across the identical time, Manchester was additionally submitting its bid to host the 2000 Olympic Video games. Though in the end unsuccessful, it helped pave the best way for town to host the 2002 Commonwealth Video games, which noticed the development of the Metropolis of Manchester Stadium, and helped launch the method The regeneration of East Manchester and led to its eventual acquisition by Abu Dhabi. From Sir Howard’s beloved Manchester Metropolis.
Former Chancellor George Osborne as soon as described Sir Howard as “among the finest civil servants ever”. [he had] “Unprecedented,” he stated, having been persuaded to unleash the financial energy of northern England by the Larger Manchester switch deal in 2014 – the primary exterior London.
Sir Howard, who was knighted within the 2003 New 12 months Honors Listing, stepped down as chief govt in March 2017 after 46 years as a council worker. He went on to carry advisory roles at Deloitte, the College of Manchester, and Manchester Metropolis’s mum or dad firm, Metropolis Soccer Group, amongst others. He was additionally made an honorary chairman of the city and president of Lancashire Cricket Membership.
However he’ll without end be synonymous together with his achievements on the Metropolis Council and his essential position in serving to to rebuild and reinvent Manchester for the twenty first century. “It’s my metropolis,” he stated shortly earlier than his retirement in 2017. “I’ve at all times been pleased with Manc. I’ve at all times thought-about this place to be essentially the most cosmopolitan and most profitable metropolis.
“For a Jewish man to develop into CEO of a metropolis council who has by no means as soon as skilled any type of racism or prejudice in his complete profession – I discover that completely outstanding. I believe that speaks volumes about this metropolis. If folks’s fingers had been reduce off right here, they’d cross by Manchester.
“I believe folks listed below are completely different.”
