MIPIM 2017: Sir Howard Bernstein is looking out to sea from the Manchester Pavillion in Cannes, France. For someone who has been described as the “ultimate public servant”, the outgoing chief executive of Manchester City Council looks remarkably at home wearing Gucci sunglasses and suede shoes on the French Riviera.
“It’s wonderful, isn’t it?” he says of the new MIPIM base for the city, which has historically hired a villa a few streets back from the Croisette on rue Jean Baptiste Dumas.
This year, Manchester is making a bold statement, positioning itself alongside the London and Paris pavillions. It is said to be the brainchild of Bernstein himself, who has long been pitching Manchester as a global city, never mind about who wins the slot as the UK’s “second city”.
However, in typical self-depreciating form, he says it was a team decision. He also says he had no input on the pavillion design, but when I ask if the pale blue-and-white theme has anything to do with his passion for Manchester City football club, he half-admits it does. “I’m sure that’s right but I couldn’t possibly comment,” he says. There is no getting away from the enormous role he has played in Manchester’s regeneration over the past 19 years during which he has run the city as chief executive.
Where does his ambition and commitment come from? “I think it’s my upbringing, my values, I’ve always been very strong about community,” Bernstein says. “I’ve always been very strongly associated with Manchester, which is another reason why I want to do one or two other things while I still can.” He is rumoured to be in line to take up a position as professor of politics at the University of Manchester but will only say that is “speculation”.
Will he be at MIPIM next year? He says he “genuinely” doesn’t know. “And if I’m not here next year I won’t lose any sleep over it, don’t worry,” he says.
This year’s conference has led his thoughts towards the European project. “I learned something here, actually, which is that a chaotic Brexit would be as disastrous for Europe as it would be for the UK,” he says. “That much is clear to me.”
Already sounding like a politics professor, he adds: “We need to start to see a Europe that wants to reform itself. [Europeans] want to see a greater emphasis on economic co-operation and less about political federalism.”
A more common topic than Brexit at the pavilion this year was, what will Manchester look like next year? With Bernstein retired and replaced by Wakefield chief executive Joanne Roney, Stockport chief executive Eamonn Boylan taking on the role of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority chief executive, and a new Greater Manchester mayor due to be elected in May as a new figurehead for the region, the political power shift will be significant and more complex than the current order.
“The things that are under way will continue,” says Bernstein, who has executed a highly organised succession strategy. “The pipeline of property and other investment projects is huge. The momentum is there and the culture of collaboration between the public and private sector is there, to make sure that continues.” Will the city founder without his strong stable leadership? He insists not, although he reasons this is because the pipeline of projects is already in place and “investment breeds investment”.
Bernstein’s influence over property developments has been so great that it is easy to imagine he played a role in Gary Neville’s decision to rethink the design of the controversial £200m mixed-use development, St Michael’s, which he dreams of creating in the city centre. “I do support the ambitions of the scheme 100%. That will never change,” Bernstein says.
“But at the same time, as Gary himself said yesterday, we’ve also got to recognise that for the scheme to actually tick everyone’s box, it has to be of the highest quality, the design has to be of the highest quality and he has concluded and I support it, that there should be a period of reflection to see whether or not there should be some refinements made to the design. Perfectly sensible and pragmatic and an important thing for him to have done.”
His top piece of advice to Joanne Roney? “Keep going”. This you could fairly interpret as a call to continue his legacy, which is not going to die any time soon. As one Manchester agent summed up this week: “The king is dead, long live the king.”
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