He also believes Greater Manchester should be renamed

19:38, 25 Jun 2025Updated 19:38, 25 Jun 2025

Mike Ingall, Allied London chair, is the brains behind Spinningfields and St John’s developments(Image: Manchester Evening News)

Manchester city centre ‘could’ explode with another 150,000 people in ‘10 years time’, according to the brains behind the Spinningfields – who believes Greater Manchester should be renamed.

Allied London chair Mike Ingall told a launch party for the opening of Campfield, attended by council leader Bev Craig, and the chief executives of the council and Andy Burnham’s office, he believed ‘in 10 years time there could be 250,000’ living in the city centre.

Mr Ingall has previous form for predicting the rise of the city’s population — and doing so correctly.

“Our forecast was by 2025 there will be 100,000 people,” he added at the party on Wednesday (June 26), having told journalists earlier in the year ‘15 years ago I’m on the record saying that Manchester city centre’s population will get to 100,000’.

The latest estimates put town’s population as very close to 100,000, a remarkable rise from the less than 500 souls who called it home in 1990.

Mr Ingall also used his keynote address to suggest Greater Manchester should rebrand to ‘Manchester, G.M.’, citing the precedent of renaming the American capital from District of Columbia to Washington, D.C. ‘120 years ago’.

(Image: LDRS)

He first signalled his intention to use the brand for tech start-up incubator ‘Exchange’, before adding: “The energy politically has gone from Greater Manchester to Manchester.

“The tank of petrol is full in Manchester and the engine is ready to start. Greater Manchester is not quite on that journey. Our vision is to spread Campfield into the region.

“By supporting the political agenda of growth, you could set yourself a target. There’s a city in Colombia called Medellin which was in 2013 the most innovative city in the world after Escobar‘s destruction. They did it through public buildings in strategic locations.

How Campfield looks inside now(Image: Manchester Evening News)

“If we are all into growth, there’s no reason to say in 10 years time Manchester, G.M. could be the most innovative regional city in Europe.”

Campfield, the new name for a series of studios, offices, and a start-up ‘incubator’ in the former Upper and Lower Campfield Market Halls on Liverpool Road, would be at the centre of that effort, he added.

Council leader Bev Craig would not be drawn on the calls to rename the city-region, but said she could not ‘think of a better representation of the history, present, and future of Manchester than this building’.

“In the week we lost Hotspur Press, it’s good to show what our history means to us,” she added, referencing the multi-million-pound restoration project to breathe new life into Campfield.