Foundational Economy

The foundational economy supplies everyday but essential goods and services, ensuring the effective functioning of Greater Manchester.

It accounts for over 40% of jobs in the city-region, which is a higher proportion than in most other places in the UK so it has a big effect on employment practices, the quality of work available and income levels in Greater Manchester.

People shopping at a market in St Ann's Square

The true value of many of our foundational economy sectors and workers has never been more apparent than during the pandemic response, when our key workers and industries kept us going through the emergency response and beyond.

People eating outside restaurants in Ancoats, Manchester

The foundational economy supplies everyday but essential goods and services, ensuring the effective functioning of Greater Manchester.

It accounts for over 40% of jobs in the city-region, which is a higher proportion than in most other places in the UK so it has a big effect on employment practices, the quality of work available and income levels in Greater Manchester.

The true value of many of our foundational economy sectors and workers has never been more apparent than during the pandemic response, when our key workers and industries kept us going through the emergency response and beyond.

The Foundational Economy is connected to every other part of the economy:

  • Education, childcare and social care not only support people directly using these services but also enable parents and carers to work.
  • Retailers provide essential goods like food and clothing but also create thriving high streets and places people want to visit.
  • The construction sector builds homes of workers as well as the labs and manufacturing spaces used by high tech companies, innovators and entrepreneurs.

The UK has long-standing issues with productivity, but policy and investment has not tended to focus on the foundational economy despite its size and importance. 

The way business support has been funded in the past excluded many Foundational Economy businesses. This means the support available is smaller and less well-tested.

Sectors of the Foundational Economy with lots of micro-enterprises and self-employed people currently lack the networks to co-ordinate and drive innovation, including attracting public and private investment.

Greater Manchester is testing and developing new policies and programmes that will help Foundational Economy enterprises develop new solutions to the challenges in our economy, as well as contribute to achieving our ambitions to reduce inequality, increase productive investment and community wealth.

This includes a forthcoming “Challenge Fund" in 2022 that will fund small projects to develop innovative solutions that increase the resilience of the foundational economy, and where there are no existing programmes or solutions in place so innovation is needed.

Greater Manchester is also working to align our policy and budgets, particularly skills provision, to develop the knowledge, resilience, and careers of those working throughout the Foundational Economy.

This includes commissioning £3million of new skills provision that will support 2,600 workers in Health and Social Care, including upskilling for clinical and managerial staff, as well as a bridging programme for progressing from Level 3 to Level 5 apprenticeships.