Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown is playing a key role in organising a government-backed innovation conference set to take place in Manchester on October 9. The event aims to bolster the United Kingdom’s competitiveness by bringing together leading figures from business, academia, and government to translate ambition into actionable strategies.
The gathering, described by insiders as a “landmark” event, will feature prominent speakers including Dame Kate Bingham, managing partner at SV Health Investors and former head of the UK’s Covid-19 vaccine taskforce; Kasim Kutay, chief executive of Novo Holdings, the controlling shareholder of pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk; and Mohamed El-Erian, economist and former CEO of Pimco. Lord Darzi of Denham, director of the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London and a former minister under Brown, as well as Sir Paul Nurse, president of the Royal Society and former chief executive of the Francis Crick Institute, are also expected to contribute. A senior government minister is slated to address the conference as well.
The event is convened by the Growth and Reform Network, a think tank launched last year that seeks to unite government, mayors, and local leaders in promoting inclusive economic growth and public service reform. The initiative aligns with Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s agenda to strengthen the economy through greater devolution and enhanced local powers. In his recent Labour Party conference speech, Burnham invoked Brown’s vision, endorsing the message that the UK can become “the world’s innovation nation,” highlighting the potential of start-ups and scale-ups emerging from British universities and businesses.
Burnham has pledged to decentralise authority from Westminster to Manchester, where he has established a “No 10 North” office intended to support regional reforms in areas such as utilities, reindustrialisation, and regeneration.
The Growth and Reform Network is led by Ben Lucas, its executive chairman, who has a background in city growth and devolution inquiries. Lord O’Neill of Gatley, formerly chief economist at Goldman Sachs and an informal adviser to Burnham, was invited to speak but is unavailable. O’Neill has publicly expressed reservations about some of Burnham’s policies, cautioning that promises of “good growth to every postcode” could risk misallocation of taxpayer funds.
The Manchester innovation conference follows the recent postponement of a planned global investment summit in London, which had been scheduled for December. The government deferred the summit amid turbulence in global bond markets and rising borrowing costs for the UK. The last international investment event held at London Guildhall in October 2024, shortly after the election of the Labour government under Sir Keir Starmer, reportedly secured investment commitments worth approximately £63 billion.
Requests for comment from the government and the Growth and Reform Network went unanswered.