Tributes from across the public and private sectors have poured in for Sir Howard Bernstein, who died this weekend aged 71.
The ultimate public servant and power broker, Bernstein played a pivotal role in shaping modern Manchester and is credited with spearheading its economic renaissance.
He was chief executive of Manchester City Council from 1998 to 2017, creating a legacy for the city’s people, its built environment and its business community. His impact is felt far more widely too, as a champion of the Northern Powerhouse strategy and of devolution.
In the property sector, he was regarded as “regeneration royalty”. He believed passionately in the benefits of partnership and collaboration and in Manchester’s place as a global city – themes he extolled at MIPIM.
Bev Craig, leader of Manchester City Council, said: “Sir Howard served Manchester with remarkable distinction. He will be remembered as a driving force in the city’s turnaround from post-industrial decline to the growing, confident and forward-looking city we are today.
“He leaves an incredible legacy in the transformation of the city.”
Chris Oglesby, chief executive at Bruntwood, said: “Much will be said about Howard, but possibly his greatest legacy is the culture he created in the city. Over the years we worked together, his commitment to strategy, the belief in collaboration and sheer hard work was unwavering. It left me and so many others with a personal sense of obligation to do our best to ensure that legacy continues to live on and is reflected in everything we do.”
Oglesby’s comments follow a tribute he paid to Bernstein in Cannes in 2017, just before his departure from the council. Then he highlighted Bernstein’s “incredible vision and unswerving commitment to it when so often there may be an easier alternative”. Like any great entrepreneur, he was able to see a great vision “in what is often only a tiny chink of initial information”.
Bruntwood has partnered with the council on many projects, giving Oglesby first-hand experience of another of Bernstein’s great strengths: “his ability to create a culture of collaboration”.
“More than anything, this for me will be Howard’s greatest legacy and, when people liken his departure to that of Sir Alex Ferguson, it is the thing that gives me most hope.”
He was a rare leader with the ability to “get people to run through walls,” Oglesby said, something he managed thousands of times in his 46 years at Manchester City Council.
Sir Richard Leese, leader of Manchester council from 1996 to 2021, said he was “devastated” at the news. “The last time I saw him, a couple of weeks ago, he was still enthusing about the next stages of regeneration in east Manchester, around Ancoats and the Etihad Stadium,” Leese said. “Manchester is blessed to have had one of the great local government chief executives – someone whose drive, vision and energy was devoted to the city he loved. His impact on Manchester is unrivalled.”
Mike Kane, shadow transport minister and Labour candidate for Wythenshawe & Sale East said: “I got to know Sir Howard Bernstein around 1991 and served as executive member for leisure and sports with him. One only needs look around Manchester to see his legacy and his vision for our great city.”
Tom Stannard, chief executive at Salford City Council, said Bernstein was “an iconic figure in the recent history of the great city of Manchester and our city region” who leaves “a hugely positive legacy”.
Night-time economy adviser Sacha Lord added: “Without any doubt in my mind, he was the most important figure to spearhead Manchester’s renaissance. A true Manchester legend. His fingerprints will always be left on the city.”
Trailblazer
Bernstein was born in Cheetham Hill, an inner-city area of Manchester, on 9 April 1953 and attended Ducie High School in Moss Side.
He joined the council as an 18-year-old junior clerk in 1971, beginning an extraordinary career path to become chief executive in the aftermath of the 1996 IRA bombing.
He was appointed chief executive of Manchester Millennium, the public/private task force set up by government and the city council following the attack, in which a 1,500kg lorry bomb was detonated in the city centre – the largest bomb to be detonated in the UK since the Second World War. The vast redesign and rebuilding that followed delivered areas such as Piccadilly Gardens, Exchange Square, New Cathedral Street and Urbis.
During his tenure, Manchester hosted the 2002 Commonwealth Games, became the trailblazer for English devolution and attracted billions of pounds of investment into the city. The top drawer of Bernstein’s filing cabinet at Manchester Town Hall was rumoured to be stuffed full of ready-to-go opportunities to be presented any time that central government announced a new fund.
Speaking to EG in 2022, he said that everything he did at Manchester was based around building partnerships and trying to harness the very best of civic and place leadership alongside the energy and resources of the private sector.
“Manchester is a pretty good example of how those energies can be optimised to deliver the best outcomes,” he said.
Highlights included the mighty regeneration of 17 neighbourhoods on 4,500 acres in east Manchester, including what is now the Etihad Campus, which was kick-started by Manchester’s second failed Olympic bid.
“Without the Olympic bids and the Commonwealth Games, we couldn’t easily access the resources to open up east Manchester – there’s absolutely no doubt about that,” he told EG in 2017. “Those Olympic bids were where we all – private and public sectors – learnt about the benefits of partnership and collaboration. They were hugely rewarding, we learnt to share our plans for our city, and it created a new identity and a new civic pride. We are still following that approach 25 years later – it’s the most significant thing about how we do business.”
Another was Spinningfields, the pathbreaking 22-acre, 4.5m sq ft office district developed in partnership with Allied London. Planning work began after the 1996 bombing.
“Without an assertive city council, you can’t do schemes like this. We saw an opportunity to expand our financial and professional sector, and provide big-floorplate offices, and we took it but using our landholdings and privately owned holdings,” he told EG. “Spinningfields is without doubt one of the most significant platforms for growth in Manchester – our financial and professional services sector is much larger today than it was in 2006-7 before the crash, and the partnership with Allied London has been remarkably successful.”
Bernstein also championed the idea of the Metrolink transport system and its subsequent expansion, the vast Hulme regeneration, the Bridgewater Hall, the Manchester Conference Centre, the City Art Gallery and new arts venue the Factory at the St John’s development.
Let it grow
Yet Bernstein understood how important it was to protect the city from development at times – a case in point being the Northern Quarter, with its eccentric mix of unreformable old Manchester and funky new Manchester focused on Oldham Street.
“Sometimes you just need to leave things alone. Let it grow but don’t intervene, let it develop its own identity and only step in to help the area avoid excessive developments, and we have had to step in to stop some developments that would not have fitted.”
After retiring as chief executive of Manchester City Council in April 2017, Bernstein took up roles at Manchester City Football Club, Deloitte, Vita Group and the University of Manchester.
In August 2022, he was drafted in by Greg Clark, secretary of state for levelling up, to help rescue Liverpool City Council.
“What Howard has gifted so many of us with through his vision and collaborative approach is a clear sense of purpose beyond the pound notes of the appraisal,” said Oglesby in 2017. “The beauty is that this focus on the higher purpose in turn has, of course, delivered huge long-term financial success for the city and our industry.”
Bernstein was married to Lady Vanessa Bernstein. He leaves two children – Jonathan and Natalie – three stepdaughters – Danielle, Francesca and Dominique – and seven grandchildren.
Image © David Gennard
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