Through a case-study of the city of Manchester, this paper analyses how the meaning, scope and delivery of urban regeneration have changed while also acknowledging threads of continuity. The narrative covers the launch of key regeneration projects in the city from Hulme in the early 1990s, through east Manchester in the early 2000s to the regeneration of Victoria North today. These regeneration projects, amongst others, together provide the lens through which the features typifying Manchester’s approach to regeneration are examined along with an assessment of how they have changed or stayed constant.

Data underpinning this research was gathered through mixed methods.  Desk-based analysis of secondary literature such as council meeting minutes, local, city-regional and national policy documents was supplemented with semi-structured interviews with key figures in Manchester politics including elected officials and officers at local and city-regional level over a two-year period from 2023-2025. The chapter also draws heavily on research conducted with Professor Brendan Evans over a twenty-five year period. Although not a longitudinal study, our enduring immersion in Manchester politics provides this paper with a de facto long-term perspective.

While the focus is specifically on the city of Manchester, the paper acknowledges from the start that the boundaries between the city and the city-region have always been blurred. These blurred boundaries play a significant part in how Manchester City Council (MCC) has sought to govern not just the city but the wider city-region. The paper concludes by drawing out the main lesson to be learned from a case-study of Manchester which has wider significance for regeneration elsewhere. The active agency of local government over its territory is paramount. Institutional structures and rules enable or constrain but it is MCC’s activism which has allowed regeneration opportunities to be seized and constraints attenuated