News & Events Guest Articles

Guest Article: Mayor Andy Burnham on Leadership in Response and Greater Manchester’s Strong Cities Journey

Publication Date:

12/04/2025

Content Type:

Guest Articles

Share:

Tags:

Ariana Grande ConcertColumbusMayoral LeadershipOsloResponseTransatlantic DialogueWashington DC

— 4 minutes reading time

The date 22 May 2017 marked a turning point for Greater Manchester. A bombing at an Ariana Grande concert claimed the lives of 22 people, including many children, and left hundreds injured and traumatised. It was the deadliest attack in the United Kingdom since the 2005 London bombings.

I had been elected to office just weeks before the attack. In its immediate aftermath, working with colleagues, we sought to foster a transparent, community-oriented response that prioritised supporting all victims of the attack. We spent time with survivors and bereaved families, announced a vigil for those who were lost, and commissioned a non-statutory review of the city’s response to examine all aspects of the aftermath and identify lessons learned. From the outset, I made sure that the experiences of bereaved families, the injured and others directly affected were at the heart of the review process.

Of course, there were also serious learnings from both the non-statutory report and the statutory public inquiry report released in 2022. We are using recommendations from both reviews to improve our city’s response strategy and our broader preparedness.

As we have seen around the world, it is not just capital cities that have experienced such attacks. Cities of all sizes need to be prepared. Driven by an ambition to help other cities prevent and respond to all forms of hate, extremism and polarisation, Greater Manchester joined the Strong Cities Network in October 2019, contributing to and benefiting from the Network’s city-city learning, particularly its Transatlantic Dialogue Initiative; a platform that serves as a much needed learning community for mayors and other city leaders on both sides of the Atlantic.

In May 2023, I participated in a Strong Cities’ Transatlantic Dialogue held in Oslo, Norway, focused on city-led response and the role of mayors and cities in building strong and resilient communities. I shared how the Arena Bombing had impacted Manchester’s communities and the importance of leadership in response, and how we prioritised establishing long-term trauma-informed care services, including for survivors and first responders.

At a January 2024 Strong Cities Transatlantic Dialogue, held in Washington, D.C. in partnership with the German Marshall Fund, I had the opportunity to meet with fellow city leaders and officials and share experiences around how cities can foster community cohesion and strengthen local democracy; a process that starts with ensuring all residents feel heard and included and sustained through authentic leadership. Crucial lessons for leaders, particularly in an era of rising hate and polarisation.

This past September, I joined mayors and city officials at a third Transatlantic Dialogue in Columbus, Ohio, co-hosted by Mayor Andrew Ginther; an invaluable opportunity to share strategies we are implementing in Greater Manchester to prevent and respond to hate and polarisation and strengthen national-local cooperation during times of crisis. It was also an opportunity to share with other mayors how the We Love Manchester Emergency Fund, launched in the wake of the Arena Bombing, has supported victims and their families and community initiatives focused on building people-to-people connections and promoting resilience from within.

Such connections, whether in the form of city-to-city learning and exchange at the heart of the Strong Cities mission, or the connections built between impacted communities – such as the survivors of the Boston Marathon bombing and Manchester’s victims and their families – are crucial for learning and resilience. It is this strength through community, and the work of Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi to rebuild his city, that inspired Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram and I to launch the Unbroken Cities Network, a network of cities and charities to support the recovery of Ukraine after the war, advancing rehabilitation efforts and providing technical and strategic assistance to Lviv and other Ukrainian cities impacted by the war.

It is in cities where real change happens. It is in cities that local governments and communities can forge partnerships to drive and sustain change. And, it is through city-to-city exchange and support that we can leverage our collective experiences, learnings and innovations.

This is why we were very proud to co-host a Strong Cities’ Transatlantic Dialogue in Greater Manchester in February 2025. The two-day workshop brought together more than 90 representatives of cities, civil society and national governments from 35 cities and 15 countries across Europe and North America. It was an opportunity to share challenges and innovations in the prevention of hate, extremism and other harms to social cohesion, and featured a strong focus on the role of mayors and local governments in safeguarding local democracy and social cohesion amid consecutive and cascading national, regional and global crises. It was the next step in Greater Manchester’s journey with the Strong Cities Network, and an invaluable opportunity for UK, European and US cities to learn from each other’s experiences and approaches, including our recently-concluded Hate Crime Plan.

I encourage our fellow Strong Cities members and engaged non-members to read the event report from the Greater Manchester-Strong Cities Transatlantic Dialogue event, and contact the Strong Cities team at [email protected] to learn more about the Network’s Transatlantic Dialogue Initiative.

Author

Andy Burnham
Mayor of Greater Manchester

News & EVENTS

Stay up to date with recent news, articles and event reports

News & Events

Looking for something in our Resource Hub?

Or explore all resources

Nominated for Best Animated Short at Cannes

Watch now

Join US

Looking to become a Strong City?

Get in touch