Public servant who spearheaded the regeneration of post-industrial Manchester as the city council’s chief executive

In the staid world of local government, where town halls were traditionally seen by ministers as supplicants of Whitehall, Sir Howard Bernstein stood out as a rare public servant determined to break the mould of civic passivity.

As chief executive of Manchester city council for 19 years, Bernstein, who has died aged 71 after a short illness, was instrumental in transforming his native city from what he once called the doldrums of the post-industrial 1980s into Britain’s second biggest commercial and business centre, pulling in billions of pounds in investment.

The Greater Manchester town was a Labour stronghold before 2019. Will it be once again? Helen Pidd reports

Leigh in Greater Manchester used to be a Labour party stronghold. A former mining and mill town, it was once Andy Burnham’s constituency. But in 2019 that was swept away as the town voted for Boris Johnson.

Helen Pidd, then the Guardian’s northern editor, visited it often – and in 2020 people there told her why Labour had lost its shine for them. Four years later, with Labour cautiously hopeful it can regain the town, she returned to find out what has changed.