By Sir Howard Bernstein, former Chief Executive of Manchester City Council

Town centres and cities across the UK are being reinvented, with both post-pandemic and pressures to meet net zero targets prompting or accelerating key changes. While different communities will have their own distinctive set of challenges and opportunities when it comes to regeneration, one thing unites them: no city or town centre will achieve its maximum potential without successful leadership. Place leadership has never been more important and is not just desirable for local authority leaders, but essential.

In England, the resurgence of many big cities and towns has had more to do with good place leadership than anything else.

Although Aberdeen has significant advantages, many of them derived from the successful industries it hosts, it also faces challenges. There is a perception that its infrastructure and amenities need some attention, and that it needs to secure a new sense of purpose that shines through in its buildings, streets, and spaces.

Aberdeen’s net zero vision will position it as a climate positive city while helping to lead the world on the rapid shift to a net zero future and support the global energy transition by leveraging its unique assets and capabilities. We know to achieve net zero, it is going to take collaboration from leaders across all countries, sectors, and societies to make it happen. Companies in the energy and industrial sectors are at the forefront of this change and their investment in technology and innovation will be critical.

Companies like Deloitte are ideally placed to take a leading role in connecting the ecosystem of businesses, innovators, regulators, and thought leaders that will make this change possible. We will only achieve a “connected energy future,” if we’re all in it together, armed with a common purpose.

So, reinventing cities in the aftermath of the pandemic to meet changing societal and local priorities, while also boosting local growth, progressing net zero ambitions, and increasing levels of participation in the labour market, require not just strong civic leadership, but a collaborative approach with the fullest range of stakeholders. This applies particularly to the several public service providers who have a direct impact on places and their residents.

Place leadership structures, then, must develop strong and compelling visions about how their long-term success can be supported.

It is from building on this understanding that Manchester, for example, started to integrate a public service reform agenda as part of a comprehensive growth strategy which considered how different neighbourhoods and stakeholders were relevant to successful delivery.

This distinctive approach informed the way in which Manchester City Council was organised: outward facing, and with a focus on growth, communities, and resident engagement.

There is now a wider acceptance of the need to re-think the relationship between local and national government, which goes to the heart of devolution of powers and resources, extending the toolkit available to place leaders to work collaboratively with key partners to affect change.

But greater autonomy in this space must be earned. Key stakeholders need to be part of the journey and be willing to play a full part in both the vision and delivery, and national government must have the confidence that new powers and resources will be deployed appropriately.

Good place leadership also requires partnership and trust between local authorities and the private sector, engaging national government and influencing policies to boost local growth.

In Aberdeen, and indeed in Scotland, the journey could be longer than in England given the absence of Metro Mayors and how little of devolved arrangements have been transferred to places and communities. However, for places like Aberdeen, which has such a range of assets at its disposal and a growing, diverse economic base, the case for strong place leadership is compelling, and something I hope is a subject of future national debate in the months ahead.

KeyFacts Energy news: Aberdeen Focus