The BBC relocation to Media City in 2011 is a welcome, credit-crunch free addition to the Greater Manchester economy.
It’s an awe-inspiring sight to see the towers rising in Salford Quays, the only place the Manchester/Salford combo can offer some proper big sky.
The 1,500 new jobs that come with the relocation should provide a welcome fillip for the residential property market, too.
Not all the Londoners are prepared to make the move North, and even some who are, such as silver-tongued Radio 5 presenter Nicky Campbell, has said he may make it a working week-only base.
At the recent Nations and Regions TV conference, the talk was of 40% of London staff being prepared to relocate; that would mean 600 moving up.
Hundreds will be putting down roots and spending their relocation budgets up here, but if they are reading the same press I am, the exclusion of Salford’s suburbs as a place to live is noticeable.
The hackneyed image of the media worker means all roads lead to South Manchester - Didsbury in particular. The rest of the southerly string of pearls - Altrincham, Hale, Bowdon, Cheadle and the like - are also mentioned.
There is sometimes a nod towards Salford with the inclusion of leafy, canal-bestowed Worsley, and of course the chic pads dotted around the Quays.
Yet I recently had the pleasure to pootle in and around Monton, Eccles and Ellesmere Park, in car and on foot. Stately red-brick semis and detached houses, wide streets, plenty of trees. Perfectly pleasant shopping centres and independent shops.
Some media people will find the value, community, and friendliness on offer in the likes of Monton and Eccles more appealing than the fancy nick-nack shops of Didsbury.
The same goes for the Bury suburbs of Prestwich and Whitefield. And the North Manchester neighbourhoods would be more travel-friendly than the journey to work from South Manchester.
Perhaps these districts aren’t as polished as their south Manchester counterparts. But many BBC staff are relocating not from executive estates in Surrey - but from pretty ‘real’ areas of inner London, where the gentrification process has pepper-potted all types together to form pretty mixed communities.
The BBC relocation offers a superb opportunity for Salford council to attract some gentle gentrification of its own, with all its benefits, so let’s hope the BBC staff get a chance to see Salford’s lesser-known suburbs as well as the cliched ‘meejah’ enclaves..
Tags: BBC relocation, Manchester PR agency, Media City, Salford Quays
