A handful of leading business figures in Greater Manchester have launched a campaign to get people back into the city centre and the workplace.
Gary Neville is among the figures to launch the UnitedCity initiative, which it said is aiming to put the city region “on the road to economic recovery”.
Chris Oglesby, chief executive of Bruntwood, Lisa Morton of Roland Dransfield PR, OBI’s Will Lewis and Frank McKenna of Downtown in Business have joined Mr Neville to launch the campaign, which has the backing of Manchester council leader Sir Richard Lease and Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham.
UnitedCity will commission privately-funded campaigns and independent research, it said, to deliver data and messages around safety in the workplace, venues and on transport.
Mr Neville, who is founder and director of Relentless Group, said the group is looking for business leaders to “step up and lead the change to our working habits; to get our teams back into the office and back together again”.
Mr Oglesby said the “region’s ecosystem is broken without a confident and collective return to a more normal life”, and “an economic recovery for the city... is impossible without a shared impetus to get things moving again”.
He said: “Within the UnitedCity steering group, we have professionals who can support and advise business leaders to ensure that they are able to practically and emotionally support their returning workforces.
“The city centre in particular needs life breathed back into it; it’s nothing without its people, and the culture, hospitality, retail and leisure businesses within it have helped create Manchester’s reputation as a hotbed of innovation and dynamism.
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“We’ll be looking to build a broad coalition with other business organisations and political leaders, with the long-term aim of ensuring Greater Manchester can recover in a way which is sustainable and healthy.”
The group said it will develop a strategy to demonstrate the economic and health costs of Covid-19, identify ways both can be minimised and look at creating Covid-secure environments.
In the longer-term, it said its research will form the basis of a strategy to negotiate with government on regional lockdowns.
The collective of business owners will also raise funds to support the most vulnerable in the city region, it said.
Some £100,000 has been placed into the fund by the founding partners, with more to be raised with a membership fee for local businesses to become part of UnitedCity.
Electricals retailer AO.com and CarFinance 247 are among those who have pledged to support the initiative.