Andy Burnham has launched his mayoral manifesto with a love-letter to ‘radical’ Manchester – and to a soundtrack of Oasis, James and the Stone Roses.

The Leigh MP declared music legend Tony Wilson his ‘inspiration’ at an event in Newton Heath, at which he outlined a raft of policies aimed at echoing the region’s revolutionary history.

An array of Manchester iconography formed the backdrop at the Sharp Project, where people who had contributed to his manifesto had been invited to hear the results.

He said the ‘radical’ spirit of the city ‘runs through every single page’ of the document, which he said had been formed after months of speaking to ordinary people in a bid to create what he termed ‘our manifesto’.

(Image: Manchester Evening News)

Guests were ushered into the auditorium to the sounds of Sit Down by James, followed by Oasis b-side Half the World Away and a video of iconic moments, set to Stone Roses hit This is the One.

The compilation ran through some of Greater Manchester’s most defining images, including the birth of women’s suffrage, the IRA bomb and its aftermath, and both United and City’s grounds, as well as news coverage of the former shadow health secretary’s decision to stand.

Mr Burnham told assembled supporters: “As the song said, this is the one we’ve been waiting for. This is a big moment in the history of our country and if anywhere can rise to this moment it’s Greater Manchester.”

He said the region was a ‘great place’, with ‘great people’ and ‘a great history’, as well as ‘wonderful values’, adding: “I believe it now truly stands on the brink of a great era.”

Paying tribute to Madchester-era legend Tony Wilson – whom he said had been a friend – he told supporters the pair had first shared a commitment to devolution in the early 2000s, when they worked on the campaign to introduce a north west regional assembly.

“Going back 15 years ago Tony and I worked on devolution, the forerunner if you like to the campaign we’re involved in now,” he said.

“We tried and we tried to build a campaign and I remember in that time being really influenced by Tony’s passion for devolution and what he felt we could do, the real sense we had that Greater Manchester – indeed the north west of England – had been held back by our political structure.”

(Image: Manchester Evening News)

Mr Burnham’s 10-page manifesto also quotes Tony Wilson as saying ‘this is Manchester – we do things differently here’.

Most of the pledges contained within the document had been announced in the run-up to today’s launch – and cover policies from early years to old age, transport, climate change, housing, homelessness, mental health, health and social care, equality, loneliness and north collaboration.

Some, including his plan to roll out free bus passes for 16-18-year-olds, require a substantial amount of investment.

But Mr Burnham told the M.E.N. afterwards that the entire manifesto had ‘all been costed’, including the bus passes, which will come with an annual price tage of at least £20m.

The passes could be provided thanks to new bus legislation currently going through Parliament, he said, which would allow leaders to squeeze more cash out of bus operators.

It would also come partly from existing college funding and from his plans to create a new apprenticeship scheme, that would use a university-style application system to allow young people to apply.

“But the main way we will fund it is by the new leverage we will get through the bus services bill, because we get the ability to set the terms of the market, to say this is what we expect, this is what we want,” he said.

“We will say [to operators] we expect a free bus pass for 16-18-year-olds across Greater Manchester – if you want to provide bus services here you’ve got to make sure some of those profits you’ve been taking for yourself in the last 20 or 30 years are coming back to support young people here.”

He said that would then also lead to a saving within the benefits system.

(Image: Manchester Evening News)

On another key policy pledge – ending rough sleeping by 2020 – he admitted there was not a lot of public money with which to fund it.

Therefore it was a ‘risk’, he admitted, but revealed he had already had his own personal £15,000 pledge to the pot matched by five or six other donors.

Elsewhere in the manifesto he promised a crackdown on ‘absent’ and rogue landlords.

The sector would be expected to sign up to a Greater Manchester-wide register – voluntarily – to help oversee the quality of private rentals.

Absent landlords in his own constituency ‘drag the whole community’ down, he said, adding to anyone who did not register: “Respect our communities or get out of Greater Manchester.”

The manifesto also references plans to plough more devolved cash into affordable housing, seek extra powers over schools and early years and launch summits on pollution and loneliness.

Mr Burnham said the manifesto was not about him but about the entire community, adding: “The word ‘I’ does not appear in it. That’s how intend to work if I’m elected come the fourth of May.”